Would doubling the human lifespan be a net positive or negative for us, either as individuals or as a society? Point-counterpoint.
There is a significant possibility that over the next few decades science will make discoveries of a kind that might allow the doubling of the average human life span, from roughly 76 years now to 150. This development would, for many, represent the realization of a dream: that of enabling people to live much longer lives than at present, holding back death, which has often been seen as an ancient, unbeatable enemy. It would also raise a large number of unprecedented individual and social problems: Would we really want to live to 150? Is such a goal ethical? What would this putative longevity do to our present social structures and arrangements? Would we get a better society or a worse one?
Stock
Gregory B
GB
Program on Medicine, Technology, and Society, UCLA School of Public Health, 760 Westwood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA. gstock@signumbiosciences.com
Callahan
Daniel
D
D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008136:Longevity / Q000941:ethics; D011788:Quality of Life; D012961:Sociology