The Medical and scientific research communities are feverishly working toward discovering the causes of why we get old and die. Life extension societies and organizations are popping up around the world promoting the possibilities of life extension and potential immortality. This is not science fiction. The reality is that research is ongoing and being fueled by private investment, educational research grants and major pharmaceutical companies. It seems that almost daily there is another published study expounding on the latest clinical studies on aging or anti aging as the case may be.
Scientists in this field are going to surprise the world one day soon with an anti aging pill or some type of life extending therapy that will allow humans to live on for decades. This promises to be one of humankind’s rarest achievements but could also be cause for significant concern. If humans are eventually able to live on indefinitely, who decides who will live on and who will die when resources are depleted due to perpetual life. Who makes the choices, which will need to be made?
Researchers are already able to determine how to prevent cells from expiring by enhancing the quantity of an innate enzyme found in our bodies and the result could lead to prolonged and healthier life expectancy.
A Leap Forward in Spain
Researchers have discovered that a protein known as telomerase assists in sustaining the end caps of the chromosomes. Picture the plastic caps that prevent shoelaces from unraveling and you will understand what these are. When we grow older, our cells divide and separate, every time a cell splits these ends become shortened to the point they are damaged beyond repair and the cell dies.
Research experts think that if the innate amounts of telomerase that become depleted could be replenished, the telomerase protein could restore them. Researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Center in Madrid have examined the theory in lab rodents and discovered the mice that were genetically modified to generate ten times the ordinary amount of telomerase survived fifty percent longer than was typical.
Lead research scientist, Maria Blasco explained to New Scientist magazine that the enzyme telomerase had the potential to change a normal, mortal cell into an immortal cell.” In addition she claimed to be hopeful that a comparable application might one day bring about prolonged human life expectancy.
Segregation Of Human Immortality
When this form of life extension and possible immortality finally arrives, will humankind be faced with the prospect of discriminating immortality? When an eventual means of life extension is found it will lead to a nearly impossible political and ethical deadlock. In contrast the arguments around abortion and euthanasia will be quite inconsequential. Who will be at the helm of this novel science and even more pressing, who makes the choices about who gets to be an immortal?
Will the choices be made taking into account all levels of society based on fairness and equality, a social design evaluation dressed up as altruism clothed in a dark shroud of potential genocide? Will it be a lottery or a pay as you go for the wealthy elite? What about poor nations and their populations? Will these fortunate life extensionists be given excessive shares of resources to sustain them at the cost of lower levels of society? When some people live prolonged lives it will mean the other end of the spectrum will be denied life’s sustenance regardless of how they currently acquire it – will famine reign? History has shown us numerous examples of planned population genocide where millions of people have died due to a nations immoral intolerance and it could happen so easily again, in this longevity scenario. Today healthcare resources are unfairly directed in many industrialized nations and it is the underprivileged who pay the price.
As much as governments would try and practice fairness, people would suffer as the effect of life extension or immortality flows down through social ranks intrinsic in every society regardless of culture. Imagine the debate as national and even international fervor permeates throughout the world as Fortune 500’s make a decision about who will be granted extended life and who will be left to fend off natural progression.
Death Will Come Calling
For the majority there will be no way to avoid death when it comes calling. Will the wealthy and elite, the educated and the beautiful be able to secure their place at the front of the line when the magic pills are doled out? Perhaps those who accept a natural life on earth will be given some kind of special dispensation so others can live into perpetuity.
When man has been faced with moral and ethical dilemmas he has not always made the right choices. What a furor would ensue if a combined political – scientific – medical panel made choices that favored one ethnicity over another – shades of a madman’s holocaust disguised as something else. What was once a scientific quest for an increased human life span now degrades into a human tragedy the likes of which poses a greater threat than any man has known before. It is not farfetched to think that this breakthrough could already be here and the big decisions are being contemplated in the highest secrecy somewhere.
Families Divided, Gender Of Choice
Even in the most forward thinking, egalitarian cultures there remains an undercurrent of social class and advantage. Be it in business or politics, fast tracking takes place and opportunity for position is based more on one’s place in establishment rather than their credentials or character. In nations the world over, the political elite make decisions of who will represent public interest and who will not. When the moment arrives, who will decide on those worthy of extended life and who does not qualify?
As we contemplate this frightening scenario approaching us, think about those of position, fathers outlasting their own offspring and their children’s children. Can you imagine if you had a great – great – great grandparent of privilege living in 1830 who had this life extension treatment available to him? He might still be alive and thriving today while his own close kin have been dead and gone for well over a century due to their lack of status and misfortune.
Think of parents living a natural existence while one or two of their progeny are chosen for extended life over their less exceptional siblings, how must they feel? Would a trained physician be more worthy than his brother the bus driver would? Would females be more acceptable because of their reproduction capabilities or now even less desirable?
Death has always been the one great equalizer but how will the far greater majority of the world’s population feel when only the wealthy elite or those of status are allowed to live for centuries while the rest must settle for natural life – and death? I for one would be grateful to live the natural life that was gifted to me by my maker, rather than getting tangled in the selfish debacle of who lives and who die as mere mortals decide it.
Wed, Mar 3, 2010
Anti Aging Theories, Immortality, Longevity