Think of how you are now... hopefully you are youthful... healthy... maybe 20-something. There are a lot of things left in your life that you'd like to do. Suppose I gave you a loaded gun and told you to point it to your head and fire. You'd think I was mad! You have a lot to live for... sure you have had some great experiences, but life has more to offer you... more things you have not yet experienced.
Imagine that you are now 30, healthy, and happy. Had I handed you the loaded gun and told you to out yourself, you would not for the same reasons as before.
Imagine now that you are 80, but thanks to scientific and medical advances are still healthy, happy, and as youthful looking as when you were 30. No one would accurately guess your age as you stroll down the street... they'd say you look 30 because physically you have the body of a 30-year-old. If I gave you the loaded gun at this point, you would likely not kill yourself. Safely assuming you haven't done everything to do possible (most 80 year olds will admit there are things they still wish they could go back and do), there's still more left for you to do. A lot more.
Now you are 120. More scientific breakthroughs keep you looking as young as the 30-year old... perhaps even younger... maybe 25. You are perfectly fit, healthy, happy, and wise. Would you at this point kill yourself if I gave you a loaded gun? I think not!
You can see that in this scenario that so long as you are:
1) happy and enjoying life
2) physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy (disease and problem free)
3) sane!
... then you will not kill yourself with the gun I provide.
When we are young and free of pain, we are always looking forward to the future... what possibilities are in store for us. If we remain "young", we will not wish death upon ourselves.
When we are old and sick... we are not free. We have to look within the scope of what is left for us elderly to do. I don't know about you, but I've never heard of any skydiving 90-year-olds. Why? At around that age we are fragile and often riddled with biological wear-and-tear from years of using our bodies. Even if there aren't any skydiving 90-year-olds, I bet there would be if they were healthy enough to.
So I'm calling out every last person who says that they would not want to live indefinitely. Some people believe they would reject some treatment outright that would allow them to live a longer life in good health. These people believe that they would prefer to die naturally... that they'd be cheating death if they were able to live indefinitely in youth.
Well I call bullshit on you people who subscribe to that belief! You already utilize modern medicine now do you not? If you were diagnosed with cancer today, you surely would seek the best treatment possible as soon as possible... especially if you knew that the treatment could save your life! You are the kind of person who may reject future youth-prolonging treatment now but would readily accept it if you were actually 80, frail, and sick... when you get to actually see how miserable life is when you aren't young and fit. And that is the exact point I am trying to get across to you.
There are only a select group of people who do not believe in modern medicine and consequently do not use it. Living in Minnesota, I recently heard a story of a woman who tried to reject cancer treatment for her underage son for religious reasons. She was eventually forced by the state to give her son treatment. This kind of person may never accept any sort of life-prolonging (and indefinitely youth-prolonging) treatment when it becomes available. I will not try to convince that kind of person. If you do not benefit from modern medicine via vaccines, surgery, medications, or any other means... I will not try to convince you that your beliefs are stupid because it would be a wasted cause. You can die with the rest of the idiots who think like yourselves.
But for the rest of you who are young and enjoy living, I implore you to spend more time thinking about these matters. If you haven't spent time around old, sick, miserable people, then I suggest you work at a nursing home for awhile and see what life is currently like for the elderly. When you are in that position, you will long so hard for the days of your youth... when there were no constraints on what kinds of things you could do. When you were truly free to live and love life.
So do not be quick to condemn living indefinitely. Realize that you live your life now with many privileges... and that those privileges will vanish as you get old. Realize that future science and medicine advances will lead to a better life for you, your friends, and your family.
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There is a small problem with this sentiment, there is a rather large group of people you are leaving out.
ReplyDeleteI would not like to live forever. I would love to live a nice, long, youthful life, see, learn and do everything I can, and be happy. however, living without end is not living, it is forever existing. Those that say they would not choose to live indefinitely (Which, by the way means for an undefined period of time, which we already do to a certain extent) may simply mean that they do not wish to be immortal, never to die.
If I had the opportunity to prolong my life, I might take it, depending on the circumstances. however, If I felt like I had lived my life to the fullest, there was nothing more I wanted to do, living forever would be the worst punishment I could think of.
All in all, though, a pretty good post.
I never said living forever!! I don't want to live forever. I'd probably live 1000 or 2000 years if I could... possibly longer depending on how I felt at the time. Living "forever" is an impossibility... we will all die at some point. I just don't want roughly 1/5 of my life to be over at the time of this writing... there are so many other things I want to see and experience... many things impossible today. I will at some point say enough is enough... I just don't understand the abhorrence and opposition to radical life extension that some people have.
ReplyDeleteI should really check these more often =\
ReplyDeleteWhat I was saying is that most people take words like "indefinitely" to mean immortal. Ask someone if the want to live indefinitely (Forever, to them) they will almost always say no. There are a few who do not know the value of an eventual death who would says yes while thinking it meant forever, but those fools would learn after the fact.
Personally, I wouldn't mind a prolonged, youthful life if everyone I know had the same. I couldn't stand to watch my family and friends die one at a time while I lived on. However, if the medicine or technology was readily available for all, and they all accepted (Which I now they would) then it's something I could get behind.
On an interesting note, this would also legalize suicide, as that might be the only way to "naturally" die, refusing to live any longer. No rope or gun needed, just refuse treatments.