How Can the Quest for Longer Life Succeed?
SOME cherish the hope that the new millennium will see a breakthrough in man’s efforts to prolong life. Dr. Ronald Klatz is one of them. He is president of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, an organization of physicians and scientists dedicated to extending the human life span. He and his colleagues plan to live a very long time. “I’m looking at a life span of 130 years, at a minimum,” says Dr. Klatz. “We believe that aging is not inevitable. Technology exists now which can slow, stop and perhaps even reverse significantly the physical deterioration and disease which are currently called natural aging.” Dr. Klatz himself takes about 60 pills each day in his quest to prolong life.
Hormone Therapy and Genetics—Reasons for Hope?
Hormone therapy is one field that inspires hope. Experiments with the hormone known as DHEA seem to slow down the aging process in laboratory animals.
Concerning the plant hormone kinetin, the Swedish daily Aftonbladet quoted Dr. Suresh Rattan, a professor at Aarhus University, Denmark, as saying: “Tests in our laboratory show that human skin cells cultivated in kinetin do not change in the normal age-related way. They stay young throughout their lives.” Insects treated with the hormone are said to live from 30 to 45 percent longer than normal.
Melatonin treatments are said to have extended the life span of mice by as much as 25 percent. Moreover, the mice appeared younger, healthier, and more vigorous.
Advocates of human growth hormone (hGH) claim that it contributes to glowing skin, increased muscle mass, elevated sex drive, a lighter mood, sharper mental acuity, and the metabolism of a teenager.
Many also look to genetics. Scientists have reckoned that by manipulating genes, they can control the life span of a nematode, or roundworm. In fact, they have succeeded in keeping some of them alive for six times their normal life span. This has raised hopes of finding and manipulating similar genes in humans. Time magazine quoted Dr. Siegfried Hekimi of McGill University, Montreal, as saying: “If we find all of the human clock genes, we can perhaps slow them down just a little, so we can extend life.”
Biologists have long known that an end section of chromosomes, the so-called telomere, is shortened each time the cell reproduces. When the telomere loses about 20 percent of its length, the cell’s ability to reproduce is shut off and it dies. A particular enzyme called telomerase can restore the telomere to full length, thus allowing the cell to keep dividing. In most cells this enzyme is repressed and inactive, but active telomerase has been successfully inserted into certain cells, making them grow and divide far beyond the normal number of times.
According to researchers, this opens up sensational possibilities in fighting age-related diseases. What about replacing the body’s stem cells (cells that provide for the regeneration of body tissue) with stem cells that have been “immortalized” with active telomerase? Dr. William A. Haseltine says: “This is a clearly articulated vision of human immortality that will be introduced slowly over the next 50 years.”—The New York Times.
Do Nanotechnology and Cryonics Hold the Answer?
Nanotechnology, the science of engineering at a nanometer (a billionth of a meter) level, is also inspiring hope. Visionaries in that field claim that computerized machines, far smaller than cells, may in the future be engineered to operate at a molecular level to repair and rejuvenate aging cells, tissues, and organs. At an anti-aging conference, one researcher suggested that 21st-century physicians might employ nanotechnology to enable man to become physically immortal.
Cryonics is the practice of freezing human bodies in hopes that science will be able to revive dead cells, thus bringing them back to life again. The whole body, or just the brain, can be frozen. One man even had a bed sheet frozen. Why a sheet? It belonged to a missing friend and contained some skin cells and a few hairs. He wanted them frozen in order to give his friend the chance of returning to life if science reaches the point of reconstructing people from just a few or even one of their cells.
Where Should We Put Our Trust?
Man has a natural desire to live, not die. Therefore, scientific progress in this domain is readily hailed and associated with high hopes. But so far there is no hard evidence that DHEA, kinetin, melatonin, hGH, or any other substance can actually retard aging in humans. Skeptics fear that manipulating the telomerase in cells will do nothing but create potential cancer cells. And the use of nanotechnology and cryonics is still more science fiction than reality.
Science has contributed to, and may still contribute to, a longer and healthier life for some, but it will never give anybody eternal life. Why not? Simply put, it is because the root cause of aging and death lies beyond the realm of human science.
The Root Cause of Aging and Death
Most scientists agree that aging and death seem somehow programmed into our genes. The question is: When, how, and why did they enter our genetic code, as it were?
The Bible gives us the simple answer—even though it does not present it in terms of genetics or DNA. Romans 5:12 reads: “That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.”
The first man, Adam, had the prospect of living forever. His body was designed with the necessary faculties to live and enjoy eternal life. Eternal life was conditional, though. Adam had to collaborate with and be obedient to the Source of life, his Creator, in order to maintain his life perpetually.—Genesis 1:31; 2:15-17.
Adam chose to disobey the Creator. In effect, Adam claimed that man is better off ruling himself independent of God. Thus he sinned. From that point onward, it was as if his genetic code was altered. Instead of passing on everlasting life as an inheritance to his offspring, Adam transmitted sin and death.—Genesis 3:6, 19; Romans 6:23.
The True Hope
That situation, however, was not to be permanent. Romans 8:20 says: “The creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will but through him that subjected it, on the basis of hope.” Man’s Creator, Jehovah God, subjected humans to death because they sinned against him, but when doing this he also established a basis for hope.
This basis was clearly identified when Jesus Christ came to earth. John 3:16 says: “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.” How, though, can exercising faith in Jesus Christ save us from death?
If sin is the cause of death, sin has to be removed before death can be abolished. Early in Jesus’ ministry as the Christ, John the Baptizer said: “See, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Jesus Christ was completely without sin. Thus, he was not subject to death, which is the punishment for sin. Nevertheless, he allowed others to put him to death. Why? Because by doing so, he paid the price for our sins.—Matthew 20:28; 1 Peter 3:18.
With that price paid, the possibility of living without ever dying was opened up for all those exercising faith in Jesus. Science may contribute to prolonging our lives to a very limited extent, but exercising faith in Jesus is the real way to everlasting life. Jesus gained such life in heaven, and his faithful apostles and some others will too. Yet, for most of us who exercise faith in Jesus, everlasting life will be on earth, when Jehovah God has restored the earthly Paradise.—Isaiah 25:8; 1 Corinthians 15:48, 49; 2 Corinthians 5:1.
Everlasting Life on a Paradise Earth
One man asked: “How many people will find it worth while living once they don’t have to die?” Will life without death be boring? The Bible assures us that it will not. “Everything he has made pretty in its time. Even time indefinite he has put in their heart, that mankind may never find out the work that the true God has made from the start to the finish.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) Jehovah God’s creation is so rich and complex that it will continue to intrigue us, stimulate us, and make us happy as long as we live—even forever.
A man who studied the bird known as the Siberian Jay called it “an extraordinary, enchanting acquaintance” and claimed that observing the bird was one of the most enjoyable experiences of his life. The more he studied the bird, the more intriguing he found it. He said that even after 18 years, his study was far from finished. If one species of bird can intrigue, stimulate, and keep an intelligent man happy during an 18-year-long intense study, just imagine the potential for joy and satisfaction that there must be in studying the entire earthly creation.
Picture all the interesting fields of science that will open up to someone who is not restricted by time. Imagine all the fascinating places there will be to explore and all the interesting people there will be to meet. Try to grasp the endless possibilities to conceive, create, and construct things. There will be no limit to the opportunities for us to develop and make use of our creativity. When we reflect on the abundance of creation, it is obvious that eternity is the only time measure that can do justice to life’s possibilities.
The Bible shows that by means of a resurrection, living forever will also be extended to those who are dead. (John 5:28, 29) Many of the mysteries of history might become clear to us when those who experienced them can fill in the details and answer our questions. Think of all the insight on different periods of history that the resurrected ones will supply.—Acts 24:15.
When contemplating that time, you can appreciate that the resurrected Job may want to revise the statement found at Job 14:1. Perhaps he will offer instead: ‘Man, born of woman, now lives forever and is filled with satisfaction.’
For those putting trust in Jehovah and exercising faith in Jesus, prolonging life beyond the limits of time is not just an elusive dream. It will soon become a reality. Aging and death will cease. This is in line with Psalm 68:20, which says: “To Jehovah the Sovereign Lord belong the ways out from death.”—Revelation 21:3, 4.
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The progress of science has raised hopes concerning the possibility of living much longer
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Eternity is the only time measure that can do justice to the possibilities life has to offer