More life to our days or more days to our life?
At the moment there is no technology to prolong the human
life span, but there might be in the near future. It is high
time we thought about what our society should do with possible
new revolutionary innovations.
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Remarkably, longer life would have economic, political
and social implications. Is a longer life something
our societies should strive for? Should we aim for more
life to our days than more days to our life?
How would living longer affect an individual's quality
of life? Would you be dependent on others, have years
of health problems or spend decades as a carer, looking
after an elderly relative? Or would the 'new' old be
so fit that your grandmother could steal your boyfriend?
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There are various ethical, practical and economic questions
that have been raised around the topic of extending human
life:
- Would longevity be available for everyone worldwide
on an equal basis? If that was the case, how could
it be achieved? Should it be achieved?
- Can society afford an even larger elderly population?
How long should we go on working if we lived much
longer?
- Our societies have already adapted to a great growth
in human life expectancy in the 20th century - why
shouldn't we be able to adapt in the future too?
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- What happens when generations 'change places'? If children
choose not to use the slow-ageing technology they could
eventually look older than their parents. Would their choice
be regarded as suicide?
- Is it the fact that we live only once, and that there
is a deadline ahead of us that makes us want to achieve
something bigger and more meaningful in life?
- Will we still have respect for the elderly when their
numbers are exploding?
- How can the third world face the elderly-boom (even the
one which is going on at the moment) without gene technology?
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