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Article: Who's afraid of life extension?
- Article from:
- Generations
- Article date:
- January 1, 2002
- Author:
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Copyright informationCopyright American Society on Aging Winter 2001/2002. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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A gerontologist's inner dialogue as advocate and opponent of life-extension technology.
When I began to prepare to write this article, I was clear and confident about my direction. Anti-aging technologies, I was sure, are a snare and a delusion-an appeal to vanity, to narcissism and denial of reality. Instead of techno-utopian delusions, I would argue for a more "ecological" vision of life where youth and age are both accepted as part of the natural life cycle. It is a line of thought I have held for many years, and what is more comfortable than familiar opinions?
But the more I thought about my skepticism and hostility to life-extension technology, the more uneasy I became. Gradually, as ...