A riposte on anti-aging research. (Read my former post)
The average consumer with private insurance now spends more on anti-aging prescriptions than they do on medications to treat actual chronic diseases, according to the American Public Health Association.
The lengths we take to defy
the natural effects of aging - slowing mental alertness, sexual dysfunction,
menopause, aging skin, balding, etc.- signal a shift in the social perception
of aging. These ailments are thought to be the symptoms of a progressive
degenerative disease that without treatment can lead to *gasp* death.
This looming fear of death
has justified a market for anti-aging research. Scientists our now looking
within the human body to extend life. We are treating the natural changes
in hormone levels and gene expression as we did bad sanitation - as flaws
worthy of manipulation. We frame life-shortening genes as though suspects of
murder. When in reality, they are considerate executioners of a body about to
suffer the ailments of inevitable death.
I think it is extremely
dangerous to challenge the wisdom of our body mechanics, whether you believe it
has been created from God's perfection or from evolution's pursuit of
perfection.
Maybe as a young mind and
body I am in no position to judge our changing perceptions of aging. But it
just seems silly to me to spend billions of dollars worth of research to delay
something as inevitable of death. Maybe it is just the inner Camus (whom
I am reading now) that is speaking. I highly recommend his classic
existentialist novel, The Stranger, in which he states:
Bottom-line: the purpose of
medicine is to manipulate the biochemistry of an unhealthy body so that it may
become normal again. Death isn't abnormal or avoiadable. Let's stop treating it
like a disease.
Death is unworthy to extend as to die is to have never lived.
ReplyDeleteAnd if death is by chance not final, even then it is unworthy to extend, as its not even final.
But honestly it is neither worthy nor unworthy. Let dem do whatever dey do.
Attachment to body and all that are basically meaningless to me. To much care, stress and not for me.
You're right, we should let them do what they do. It's none of our business. But wouldn't all the research money be better spent on treating actual diseases? The U.S. spends billions more on aging-related research than they do on all infectious disease research.
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