Professor: Human life will one day be extended
By Rob Young, The Daily Reflector
http://www.reflector...210810543261087
An East Carolina University professor peered into the future Tuesday, contemplating a time when a race of near-immortals could walk the Earth.
Dr. John Davis said medical breakthroughs in coming years may extend human life for centuries, prompting ethical arguments as research into aging continues.
"I think it would change the structure of life. Life seems to be like a book with a beginning, a middle and an end. It's got kind of an arc to it," Davis, an assistant professor of medical humanities, said. "But if people live indefinitely, it wouldn't have that kind of structure. It wouldn't have a structure forced on it by the knowledge that we're going to die at a certain time."
Davis said scientist are predicting that, by the year 2030, genes involved in aging will be fully catalogued, perhaps suggesting an era where humans could stay young forever. His seminar was part of the perspectives lecture series co-sponsored by the Department of Medical Humanities at the Brody School of Medicine and the Bioethics Center of University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina.
Davis' discussion required imagination, but comes rooted in gerontological principles. Some species, such as lobsters, sturgeons, a few sharks and the female flounder, age negligibly and generally die only if they are eaten by another species or suffer some other calamity. Human life extension would require gene re-engineering or gene therapy, and it remains about two generations away, Davis noted.
If it occurs, he said, "the human race will encounter one of the four or five biggest transformations in history."
Beyond physiological changes, life extension carries ethical implications, drawing concerns from the President's Council on Bioethics. The council worries that death, if indeed centuries away, would fail to give life meaning.
Humans could also suffer extreme boredom, and people may no longer identify with their earlier selves. With such long life spans, people might forget learning experiences or experiences might be so far apart from each other that the lesson is lost.
On a societal level, extended life spans could bring on severe overpopulation, a need to review rules governing pensions and property ownership and even inequality among those enjoying extended life spans and regular humans.
"This could be too expensive to provide for everyone," said Davis, who possesses a law degree and a doctorate in philosophy.
Experts contend the government could pursue a number of policies toward life extension. Some options include hindering, delaying or providing no funding for research or banning it outright.
Davis told the audience to consider individuals' moral rights and whether the decisions would hurt others. He compared the "haves," those who might gain life extension, to the "have-nots."
Possible gains by a few — much longer periods of contribution toward society, for example — could outweigh the negatives, he said.
"My own moral judgment is that it is not great enough to justify prohibition," he said.
