The Ethics of Life Extension

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The Ethics of Life Extension

• Bob Brown Rafael Villa-Angulo
• Bio-Ethics with Professor Solka
• 20 February 2007

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Agenda

• Topic introduction
• Approaches to extending life
• Advantages and disadvantages of methods
• Ethics areas of consideration
• Conclusions and quotes

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The Life Extension Ethics Question

• Should technologies that
• radically extend the human lifespan
• be allowed to be employed?

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Robert Freitas estimates that

• Eliminating a specific list comprising 50 of
  medically preventable conditions, would extend
  human life expectancy to over 150 years.
• By preventing 90 of medical problems, life
  expectancy could extend to over 500 years.
• At 99 solved, wed be able to live for over
  1,000 years.
• Biotechnology and nanotechnology revolutions will
  enable us to eliminate virtually all medical
  causes of death. (Nanomedicine)

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Biomedical Gerontologists

• Seek to understand the nature of aging and
  develop treatments to reverse aging processes, or
  to at least slow them down, for the improvement
  of health and the maintenance of youthful vigor
  at every stage of life.
• Believing tissue rejuvenation with stem cells,
  organs replacement, and molecular repair will
  eliminate all aging and disease allowing to
  complete rejuvenation to a youthful condition.

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Methods to Extending Life

• Cure diseases and stop the aging process
• Artificial organs with nanomaterials or superior
  materials
• Significant body organ replacement
• SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible
  Senescence) is a program initiated by Aubrey de
  Grey,
• Mind Uploading-- The concept is based on
  materialism, the philosophy of mind that argues
  that the human spirit is entirely composed of a
  very complex system of physical and chemical
  interactions. 1

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Anti-Life Extension Viewpoint

• Leon Kass (chairman of the US President's Council
  on Bioethics from 2001 to 2005) exemplifies the
  anti-life extension view
• "simply to covet a prolonged life span for
  ourselves is both a sign and a cause of our
  failure to open ourselves to procreation and to
  any higher purpose. The desire to prolong
  youthfulness is not only a childish desire to eat
  ones life and keep it it is also an expression
  of a childish and narcissistic wish incompatible
  with devotion to posterity.6

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Europes Enhance Initiative

• The Centre for Ethics in Medicine was founded in
  1998
• To document current and imminent scientific
  advances that may enhance human capacities in
  cognition, mood, physical performance (in sport)
  and ageing.
• To evaluate these advances from a philosophical,
  ethical and social perspective.
• To facilitate policy-making to the emerging
  dual-use technologies.
• To promote public understanding of dual-use
  technologies and the ethical debate.
• Duration 24 month (started October 2005)
• Coordinating institution Centre for Ethics in
  medicine, University of Bristol

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Discussion Topics

• Nanotechnology
• Cryogenics
• Body part replacement
• Mind Uploading
• Cyborg citizens

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The most promising is Nanomedicine

• Nanomedicine is the medical application of
  nanotechnology and related research. It covers
  areas such as nanoparticle drug delivery and
  possible future applications of molecular
  nanotechnology (MNT) and nanovaccinology.

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Advantages of Nanomedicine

• Extremely bad conditions (as cancer) will be
  treated easily by modifying the bodys genetic
  material.
• Disease elimination will become normal, so we no
  longer will need to be worry about living with
  heath conditions.
• Diagnose diseases before there are any symptoms.
• Administer drugs that are precisely targeted.
• Use non-invasive imaging tools to demonstrate
  that the treatment was effective.

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Disadvantages for Nanomedicine

• What if the modification has unintended
  consequences for the person or society?
• What if we lose control of the nanoparticles?
• What if society determines everyone needs a
  certain modification?
• How do we deal with overpopulation?
• How does society ensure the Government doesnt
  use our money to research methods that are not in
  the best interests of the citizens?

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Cryonics

• At cryogenic temperatures there will be no
  alteration in biological tissue for thousands of
  years, which allows plenty of time for future
  life extension technologies to be available.

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Advantages of cryonics

• A complete body or organ can be preserved for
  hundreds or thousands of years
• There is a strong belief that in a no longer
  future technology and medicine will be available
  to restore damage and successfully revive
  cryopreserved patients

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Disadvantages to Cryonics

• It leaves the loves ones in limbo.
• What will it be like to acclimate to a new
  society?
• How does one just plug back in?
• What about the massive knowledge disconnect?
• What if your home was in Yugoslavia?
• What if the firm goes belly-up whom is
  responsible?
• What if the procedure is only partly successful,
  and you do not come back as a useful member of
  society?

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Body parts replacement

• Biotechnology, particularly those of human
  cloning and stem cell research, are though to
  offer some possibility of replacing aging body
  parts with new parts grown artificially.

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Advantages of Body Part Replacement

• Artificial organs will be implanted using
  nanotech devices that use the bodys own energy
  supply - - glucose and oxygen - - for power.
• Individuals brain will be transplanted from his
  or her aging body into a new, youthful body
  cloned from his or her own tissue.

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Disadvantages to Body Part Replacement

• Has been evolving over many centuries.
• Wood teeth, hook or stump, to artificial heart
  limbs
• Seems straight-forward when replacing a body-part
  with something lesser or equivalent to the
  original.
• What about body-parts that are implanted just
  because the are superior?
• On demand farming of organs or yours stockpiled
  is case of emergency soldier
• What do we do with the ones not used?
• Where do we draw the line on something being a
  part verses a cloned body?

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Mind uploading

• Concept based on materialism, the philosophy of
  mind that argues that human spirit is entirely
  composed of a very complex system of physical and
  chemical interactions.
• Uploading a human brain means scanning all of
  its salient details and then reinstantiating them
  into a suitably powerful computational substrate.

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Advantages of Mind uploading

• This process would capture a persons entire
  personality, memory, skills, and history
• It is possible by first interfacing biological
  human brains with computer parts, and the gradual
  replacement of biological components with
  mechanical ones
• Immortality will be possible

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Disadvantages to Mind Uploads

• When is this be allowed to occur - only at death?
• How does one, and their family, prepare for the
  change that is going to occur?
• What if you spend your last dime to perform this
  procedure and you were in retirement?
• Will companies be willing or required to hire
  people that are not completely human?
• Can you perform this procedure again, when a
  better model of cyborg comes along?
• Trade-in like a car

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Cyborg Citizens 1.0 Silicon and Beyond

• Hondas Asimo robot
• Neurons on a chip
• Some estimate that by 2020 computers shall be
  able to perform Human thought.5
• Transfer knowledge, experience, and emotional
  state to a cyborg?
• At what point is it that you are no longer a
  human?
• Like cars with the foreign content exceeds x?
• Fido transfer the pets emotional state to a
  robo-pet

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Advantages of Cyborg Citizens

• They will be the next step in human evolution
• Super capacity of memory, thinking, intelligence,
  and forever young
• They will open the door to the next step in
  universe evolution. Same process but applied to
  universe (cyber universe)

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Disadvantages of Cyborg Citizens

• They can continue to evolve like computers with
  no known upper-bound
• Accelerated evolution forget 20 years/generation
  think 18 months/generation
• When is automation deemed out-of-control?
• When do we have to treat them a humans, because
  they are sentient beings?
• They will be able to perform duties faster,
  better, and cheaper than people. What will
  people do to make money?

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Ethics Areas of Consideration
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Personal

• Quality of life vs. extending life
• The number of years ones should have to work
• Marriage(s) and the extended family
• Kids, Grandkids, Grandkids cubed
• Personal cost of procedures
• Tweak broken psychological traits
• Experiences, viewpoints, genetic tendencies
• Moving into another body
• Affect on you and your family

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Legal

• When is you no longer you?
• If you perform a mind upload to more than one
  being.
• When is death, e.g. if cryogenics can work?
• What is Life in prison?
• Do we just change their mind or body?
• How does society price the loss of life in a
  negligence suit?
• Laws with a blend of citizens being -- flesh and
  blood vs. humanoid vs. everything in between?

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Financial

• Cost to society vs funding other priorities
• If more money can be made extending life vs
  finding cures for diseases
• Rich versus Poor societies and people
• Forget the inheritance
• How long is Society willing to cover people no
  longer able to cover their own expenses?
• Will the great-great-great grandkids help out?

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Religion Philosophy

• If one can live 100s of years when does one get
  to the after-life?
• How much time will people spend worrying about
  the after-life?
• How will peoples morals change if they know they
  are not dying for 100s of years?
• At what point are we playing GOD?

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Societal

• Issues of an older society
• What will define old age? Will anyone be in an
  old body?
• Jobs work for 80 of your life?
• Society is allowed to evolve when people die and
  the issues can be reshaped e.g. racism
• Redefine schooling new slant on continuous
  education
• What will we need to know in 100 years cant
  program the VCR
• Knowledge pack downloads to stay current

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Political Nationalism

• What will be the political leaning of extremely
  older people?
• What laws will they want passed?
• How does this impact Nations with issues about
  prior wrongs e.g. slavery
• The have and have-not societies
• What if different countries allow different
  amounts of life extending capabilities to be used?

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Environmental

• Impact on natural resources
• Impact on population growth rates
• Can we start out by extending the life of pets?
• Suggestion allow people to only be 4 ft tall

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• The only things we can be sure of,
• so the saying goes,
• are death and taxes
• - but dont be too sure about death.
• - Joseph Strout, Neuroscientist

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Immortality first! Everything else can wait. -
Corwyn Prater
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References
1 Kurzweil Ray. The Singularity is Near when
humans transcend biology. Viking Penguin 2005.
New York, NY. 2 Aging Research Center
(http//www.arclab.org) 3 Nanotechnology and
Life Extension (http//www.xenophilia.org/nano_lif
e_extension.html) 4 Silver M. Lee. Challenging
Nature. HarperCollins Publishers. 2006. Ney
York, NY. 5 Wikipedia.org 6 Kass, Leon
(1988). Toward a More Natural Science. Free
Press. 7 Enhance Bioethics Effort
http//www.enhanceproject.org