United Nations plan to reduce premature mortality would render the over-70s ‘second-class citizens’, academics tell the LancetA plan to reduce deaths from a range of diseases is “highly unethical” because it discriminates against people aged 70 and over, according to leading medical experts.In a letter published in the Lancet on Friday, academics warned that United Nations proposals to reduce premature mortality from diseases such as cancer, stroke and dementia had the potential to undermine “cherished, fundamental principles of universality and health as a right for all” because they include only the deaths of people aged 69 or under.