There is another thought that comes to mind, in this discussion. We know all the pre ancestors to modern man were mortal. They all had death and decay residing in them, and they all went to the dust at death. Now let us consider this scripture...Rom 5:12 Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Obviously, all the ape and pre human hominids were experiencing death and dying. So how does that verse make any REAL sense, if Adam was just one of them? Death would have already been alive and well, and in full operation, in him. I suppose one could say he merely gained an understanding that death was operating in him, when his eyes were opened, so the allegory is one of mere understanding and not a definitive change in him. I agree with the fact that Adam did have a carnal mind, before the transgression, but he had NOTactually disobeyed, up until the transgression. There is something very important about the act, the work, the actual committing of the transgression. And the scriptures state that death would not start in him UNTIL he partook. Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt surely die. So even if you do want to exclude physical death from this verse, and merely make it spiritual(which is a possible interpretation) it still does not fit well with the other verses that Paul wrote in the new testament. It sure seems like Paul had all death in mind when he wrote what he did.
Even the wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (death, not neverending torment in hell) I think Jesus saves me from all the manifestations of death, the death that results from transgression.
And the new testament scriptures also state that it was through the transgression that death passed to all men, not his inheritance from his "parents". ...Rom 5:12 Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. This verse clearly implies that without the sin by Adam death would not now be operating in man. We inherit death from Adam, however. The inheritance of death is not from his progenitors, it is from Adam to the whole world, to us.