Recent press on healthy life extension has in turn generated the normal run of poorly thought through pro-death op-eds, repleat with all the normal errors and knee-jerk reactions. Human nature, when geared up in accept-the-inevitable mode, is a powerful force - observe the way it can turn so many to defend the painful, slow death of tens of millions every year. How is this in any way rational now, however?

We've moved beyond the era in which aging and death were absolute and inevitable. We can see a fairly clear path towards medical technology capable of repairing age-related damage and extending our healthy life spans. Organizations already exist to encourage and advocate healthy life extension research, and biotechnology is advancing at a scorching rate.

I can't imagine we're going to be seeing pro-death articles like this one for too much longer:

Life is like a story, with a beginning, a middle and an end. Take away the end and it would seem completely purposeless.

There you go - a fully fledged justification in the mind of a columnist for the torture by age-related disease and incapacity of hundreds of millions daily, decades of it leading to death. This article really outdoes itself in packing in the errors, but you can only be so ignorant for so long. For all who enjoy life and health, it is blindingly obvious that more of both is the most valuable gift you could receive. Healthy life extension is the foremost of all 21st century technologies we should strive for.

Technorati tags: aging, life extension

Posted by Reason at February 28, 2006 10:32 PM | TrackBack (1)