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May 11, 2005
Sensible Thoughts, Clearly Expressed
Via the Longevity Meme I found this heartening and amusing discussion between George Khushf and Christine Peterson. Here are a few lines from Ms. Peterson's part of the presentation. I particularly admire the concreteness and simplicity of her examples. Let's look, for a moment, at a longer-term issue, which is this question of extending the human life span. Actually, this is—here at UCSF the idea of making people healthy may not seem too controversial, but it turns out in Washington , D.C. , it is controversial. So do I. And I think bringing her Mom may be dirty pool, but I still love it. It's a debating point that anyone can relate to. Somewhat later in the program, Dr. Khushf voices a modest demurral regarding the timetable for eradicating cancer, and the need for a deeper consideration of the bigger picture. Here is Ms. Peterson's response. ...one thing that helps me think about this is to go back in time and replace the word cancer with polio, and we could have said, we could have had a little panel and talked about, “Well, you know, is it really just about curing polio and don't we need to have these ethical debates about curing polio?” I don't want to paint Dr. Khushf as the bad guy here. He's actually a pretty nice guy, as you'll find if you read the whole thing. He certainly isn't claiming that suffering is good for us. He thinks living longer is problematic but worthwhile. Some readers might consider the notion of adding healthy years to our lives to be an utterly fanciful folly, bereft of common sense. Am I as gullible as all that? All I can say in my defense is that if they weren't already doing it with lab animals, well, I might be sceptical too. Luckily for my self-esteem the mice are alright. The transgenic mice Rabinovitch’s team created produce higher-than-normal levels of the antioxidant enzyme catalase. Cells use catalase to convert damaging hydrogen peroxide to harmless water and molecular oxygen, but the enzyme is usually found only in the cytoplasm of cells. And they didn't even have to diet! More on this at Betterhumans. Take good care of your mitochondria and they'll take care of you. So what will He Who Must Not be Named make of all this? Something equivocal and platitudinous, I'll wager. Oh, to be a fly on that wall. Which, now that I think of it, is actually an option. But only retroactively. See, Michael Gazzaniga has written a book. As you may recall, Dr. Gazzaniga was one of the good guys on the President's Bioethics Council. While it may not approach the level of a tell-all tabloid, it's sure to provide a fascinating insider's view. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "The Ethical Brain"... I can't wait to dive in. posted by Justin on 05.11.05 at 06:43 PM
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» Making Life Like Groundhog Day. from Bloggledygook
What if you could take today, health-wise, and freeze your state of health for an indefinite period of time? Would you do it? Of course, that depends on how healthy you are today. [Read More] Tracked on May 12, 2005 10:36 AM |
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Obviously there are major societal issues to be considered when we talk of extending life--for instance, does retirement at 65 continue to make sense? But these are all about how to cope with it, not whether we should do it.
Are the issues different if the longevity is the result of a pill as opposed to careful diet and exercise? I don't hear about the ethical issues surrounding personal fitness and clean living (or, rather, I do, but they're very different issues).