Adieu, the final farewell, an exploration of death!
Extending Life: Forward to Suicide – Forward to Religious Beliefs – Back to The Soul
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I’m gonna live till I die.
Frank Sinatra, American singer and actor
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The idea is to die young, as late as possible.
Benjamin Franklin, American polymath and Founding Father of the USA
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Millions long for immortality,
who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Susan Ertz, Anglo-American writer
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It has been statistically suggested that human life has an in-built upper limit of 125 years. However, the current global life expectancy is just 73.2 years and the UK’s is 80.9 years. There are also quite significant differences between the sexes.
Life extension can therefore be:
- the goal to close that gap with the statistical maximum, by diet, exercise, medicine;
- or it can be the use of tissue rejuvenation and stem cells;
- or the application of regenerative medicine and molecular repair;
- or genetic manipulation;
- or organ replacement to achieve better than that maximum.
 ASIDE: Of course, there is a huge market in anti-aging products, many of these are ‘tongue in cheek’ concotions. Little proof exists that these are in any way effective, and some have a questionable reputation status. |
Aging is today considered to be a combination of things:
- the senescence of our cells;
- the oxidation of our molecules by free radicals;
- the exhaustion of our stem cells;
- the attrition of our telomeres;
- alterations to our genomic stability;
- the environmental impact upon our genes;
- medical impacts to our mitochondria.
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There are many ethical issues about extending life but perhaps the greatest is overpopulation. The global population:
- in 1804 was one billion;
- it took until 1927, to reach two billion – a period of 123 years;
- then, the world had three billion inhabitants by 1960 – taking just 33 years;
- and, it was four billion by 1974 – just 14 years;
- it was five billion by 1987 – 13 years;
- six billion by 1999 – 12 years;
- seven billion by 2012 – 12 years,
- and eight billion by 2022 – 11 years;
- it is forecast to slow its progress , yet is expected to exceed 10m in less than 30 years.
That’s a ten times explosion in under three centuries!
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Population has a knock-on effect in terms of water shortages, water quality, sanitation facilities, resource shortages, pollution:
- the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) states that despite 70% of the world’s area being watery, some 1.1 billion people (12%) have to live with water shortage;
- and 2.7 billion (33%) experience water shortage at least once every year;
- the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) says that 3.6 billion (45%) do not have access to safely-managed sanitation;
- some 494m still operate only on the process of open defecation;
- the WHO (World Health Organisation) says that 3 billion (38%) do not have access to clean cooking fuels and technologies in their homes.
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The greater the global population the more resources are used and this directly increases pollution. The WHO reports that ambient air pollution and household air pollution are associated with over 6.7 billion premature deaths.
And interestingly none of these statistics are referencing global warming and its geological and biological effects that occupy much of our media’s air-time and column inches!
So, is artificially extending your life in any way ethically defensible?
Extending Life: Forward to Suicide – Forward to Religious Beliefs – Back to The Soul
Back to Adieu Index - Back to Bob Denton home page
