The field of Senescence research is alive, well and growing fast. In a nutshell it seeks to understand and counter age-related decline by tackling the processes of aging at the cellular level. Though the science is still someway off from stopping and eventually reversing age-related decline and the many diseases that accompany it, that day is clearly in sight.
One very likely effect of anti-aging therapies would of course be extension in life-span. It is surprising then that many people view the whole endeavour unfavourably, arguing that aging is natural, and to tinker with it would somehow change our natures or make us monsters. Some argue from the perspective that there is a certain grace to growing old… erm… gracefully, whilst at the other extreme there is a sense it is almost blasphemous to think we might be like gods. But most researchers counter these objections by sensibly pointing out that they are not necessarily trying to extend life-span. That indeed, as molecular biologist Judith Campisi at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California puts it, “it’s extending years of healthy life that might be on the horizon”, and not extending absolute years of life.
Principally, researchers are trying to find ways to eliminate degenerative diseases not simply because they kill us before our time, which is just one outcome, but because they also cause great debilitation and reduction of quality in life whilst we are being delivered to death’s door.
Explained like this it does seem to render the objections both mute and perplexing, as is this not what medicine and hospitals are for? They not only nurse us back to health and make us feel better, they do it by treating the diseases that naturally strike us down and may end our life, many if not most of which are age-related.
Perhaps so far the function of medicine has not specifically been to extend our lives beyond their natural span, and was mostly content with alleviating suffering and perhaps helping us reach the natural span seemingly allotted to us. But in a very real sense, we have nonetheless had “anti-aging” therapies for as long as there has been a concept of medicine and treatment. In other words, for millennia. and that should surely count as interfering with nature, as naturally without them in many cases we would die. So if we argue that treatments that go beyond alleviation of suffering and which actually extend our natural span is unwise and interfering with Nature, then why not consider treatments for alleviation as being unwise and interfering in the natural order of things? Why not just accept our lot when we get sick, and happily sail off into the night when our time is up?
A debate on the pros and cons of longevity is fitting matter for cheery discussion over dinner and wine and it will not be discussed here. Except to say that funnily enough, the only time when one is not worried about death is when doing something to hasten it, such as when feasting and merry making.
Shockingly Stupid
Though the research and the future possibility of rejuvenation – already demonstrated in some laboratory animal test subjects – is fascinating, even more fascinating is humanity’s consummate skill in shortening life. Humans seem to bear an overall, breath-taking indifference to the fact that they still kill each other – for land, resources or over various gods – as well as an astonishing inability to do the maths. If you sum the resources expended in fighting over resources, the tally sheet would likely make any accountant dismally shake his head. (Lives of course are expendable and so we won’t let that particular summation further detains us).
The point is, even if the sheet somehow balances out and it makes economic sense to carry out the insanity of burning fossil fuels in military hardware in order to seize control of fossil fuels, for example, overall the world consumes vast resources that could otherwise make life cheerier for all (healthcare, food, wine and long debates over life and death), if not actually delaying the onset of aging by diverting these resources into senescence research. That is, aside from shooting each other, we are also shooting ourselves in the foot, potentates and war mongers included.
To sum it up in a nutshell, senescence research is neither against nature nor is it science fiction. And how fast it develops is not nearly as much a question of science and morality as it is of money and attitude.
So whilst we have scientists trying to make life cheerier and disease free, with the feasible promise of longer lives for those who want it, there are those others, whom by now all sensible people are quite tired of, taking life, whilst throwing money and resources down the drain (witness the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021). Or rather in their pockets, via arms manufacture and defense contracts. Money and resources that could be used to fight Major Hair Loss and General Decline rather than each other.
Updated 22 August 2021
