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| Adventures of a Middle-Aged Editor |
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| Cover story features one of the Islands’ most popular musicians. |
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| The American Heart Association offers women good advice. |
DEPARTMENT:
Living Forever:
The Ethical and Social Implications
of Life Extension
Author: John Harris, Ph.D
Title: Intimations of Immortality: The Ethics and Justice of Life-Extension
Therapies
Publisher: International Longevity Center-USA (2007)
Price: Not available.
If you could live forever, would you choose to? Ground-breaking research to cure diseases and reverse the aging process make it possible we could live much longer, healthier lives…perhaps even living as ‘immortals.’ Is society ready for this prospect? Intimations of Immortality: The Ethics and Justice of Life-Extension Therapies, a new report from the International Longevity Center-USA (ILC-USA), explores the implications of indefinite life extension.
Based on a lecture given by Dr. John Harris, philosopher and founding director of the International Association of Bioethics, Intimations of Immortality outlines the ethical issues involved in life-extending therapies. We are all programmed to age and die, says Harris, but maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. If cells weren’t programmed to age, our bodies could repair damage due to disease and aging from within.
| The International Longevity Center-USA is a research policy organization in New York City with sister centers in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. Led by Dr. Robert N. Butler, a world-renowned physician specializing in geriatrics, the Center is a non-for-profit, non-partisan organization with a staff of economists, medical and health researchers, demographers and others who study the impact of population aging on society. The ILC-USA focuses on combating ageism, healthy aging, productive engagement and the financing of old age. The ILC-USA is an independent affiliate of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and is incorporated as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) entity. To download the full report or purchase a hard copy visit www.ilcusa.org. |
If we do succeed in creating successful life-extension therapies, should there be a new definition for a ‘complete life’? Harris asks whether there is a period of lifetime that is either a fair share of life or a period sufficient to live a complete life. For example, he says, ‘fair share version might say 70 years is a fair allocation of life and that people should be supported in their attempts and desires to live up to 70 years, but after that threshold is reached they should be considered to have had their complete life.’
Among other provocative questions, are: Will immortality be the end of reproduction? If people live thousands of years, will there be a point we have to purposely kill them? Is there a moral obligation to bring new generations to the world?
‘There are advantages of fresh people, fresh ideas, and the possibility of continued human development,’ says Harris. ‘If these reasons are powerful, and I believe they are, and if the generational turnover proved too slow for regeneration of youth and ideas, we might face a future in which the fairest and most ethical source might be to contemplate a sort of “generational cleansing.”’.
How should we view the prospect of ‘writing immortality into the genes of human race’? Harris argues the technology required to produce immortality will be expensive. Once created, the availability of life-extending therapies will be limited and the risk largely unknown. The number of people availing themselves of such therapies will be a tiny proportion of the world’s population. Because of this, large impact on the increasing world population will be limited for hundreds of years.
Ultimately, Harris asks, would substantially increased life expectancy or even immortality be in fact a benefit? While most people fear death and want to prolong their own lives as long as possible, individuals do not contemplate a world of increasing numbers of immortal people as people would have to ‘compete indefinitely for jobs, space and everything else.’