If immortality is possible, should we attempt to achieve it?
The idea of immortality has become a hot topic in the past few years. Researchers all over the world have been working on figuring out how to slow down or halt human aging. We are currently still limited in our lifespans by the problem of shorting telomeres. However, researchers have been able to synthesize telomerase. Telomerase is a natural protein that can lengthen telomeres. It was originally found in cancerous cells, and is the reason that cancer cells divide uncontrollably. Theoretically, if telomerase can be placed in normal cells, and kept in check, the lifespans of humans (and other species) could be drastically increased. There is some research in the field of Polynucleic acids (PNA) that has found that synthetic PNA is able to reprogram some cancer cells to stop telomerase production and stop their division. On the other side of this biological coin, PNA could be used to program telomerase production increase in normal cells. This research, along with research on species like T. nutricula, have allowed scientists to better understand aging, and how to change it.
So I want to pose this question: is immortality ethical? If in the next ten years we are able to greatly prolong human life, should it be done? The idea of an immortal human being poses many ethical questions that have never had to be addressed till now. Bioethicist John Harris addresses some of these concerns in his paper Immortal Ethics. He discusses how immortality may drastically change our world. If it was possible, there would be two populations; the 'mortals' and the 'immortals.' There would be concerns with population increase, and whether or not our world's economy could support the increased demand of a select population that would never died of natural causes. Also, how would we chose who gets to be immortal and who does not?
I think that these are questions that have no easy answer. Below I have posed a couple questions. If you want, take a few seconds to answer them. I would like to know what others think about this topic.
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4. Harris J. Immortal Ethics. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2004;1019:527–534.
10. Shammas M a, Simmons CG, Corey DR, Shmookler Reis RJ. Telomerase inhibition by peptide nucleic acids reverses “immortality” of transformed human cells. Oncogene [Internet]. 1999 November 4;18(46):6191–200. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10597217
10. Shammas M a, Simmons CG, Corey DR, Shmookler Reis RJ. Telomerase inhibition by peptide nucleic acids reverses “immortality” of transformed human cells. Oncogene [Internet]. 1999 November 4;18(46):6191–200. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10597217