Life extension

The cycle of increasing the human lifespan and developing technology is ongoing; as people gain enough time to spend on developing technologies, lifespans are dramatically increasing. There are a significant number of technologies already released to the world such as gene therapy, stem cell therapy, CRISPR gene editing, etc. As proof, the UN declared 2021-2030 as the Decade of Healthy Aging. However, boundaries should be set for life-extending technologies considering the current problems we face globally.

The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said, “The world is reaching the tipping point beyond which climate change may become irreversible.” The Earth and its resources are already saturated. Reckless use by an increased human population has resulted in environmental pollution and a lack of food and water sources. Human activity has irreversibly changed the Earth’s environment, leading to severe climate issues such as global warming and rising sea levels. As the population increases, the following outcomes which will worsen the saturation are clear:  the overuse of industrial production and transportation. Also, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about 828 million people are currently experiencing hunger. The number of people suffering from the lack of sufficient access to food will drastically boost after the technology to increase human lifespans becomes readily available.

Also, expanding lifespans faces a lot of ethical dilemmas. Expansion of lifespans is not equivalent to the expansion of healthspans. Based on statistics published by the WHO, the average healthspan remains at 66.1 years while the global life expectancy is 73.4 years. It is likely that many individuals contemplate the reason behind and purpose of a long, unhealthy life. To elaborate further about the quality of life, life after retirement should be approached notably. As the number of people increases, the competition for employment will also rise. The world often shows a lack of compassion for those who are older; older individuals will be easily replaced by younger ones, and as this process repeats, social gaps and economic inequalities will further deepen.

Compared to the past, the human lifespan has significantly increased. The fact that individuals have received benefits is undeniable; nevertheless, the issues that the current generation must handle also came from the expansion of lifespans. The improvement of technologies should certainly be accepted and encouraged, but people should recognize what the next generation will bear.