Who Want to LiveForever?

If your doctor couldgive you a drug that would let you live a healthy life for twice as long,wouldyou take it?

The good news is thatwe may be drawing near to that date.Scientists have already extended the livesof flies,worms and mice in laboratories.Many now think that using

genetic treatmentswe will soon be able to extend human life to at least 140 years.

This seems a greatidea.Think of how much more time we could spend chasing our dreams,spendingtime with our loved ones,watching our families grow and have families

of their own.

"Longer lifewould give us a chance to recover from our mistakes and promote long termthinking," says Dr.Gregory Stock of the University of California School ofPublic

Health."Itwould also raise productivity by adding to the year we can work."

Longer lives don'tjust affect the people who live them.They also affect society as awhole."We have war,poverty,all sorts of issues around,and I don't thinkany of them

would be at allhelped by having people live longer,"says US bioethicist DanielCallahan."The question is‘What will we get as a society?'I suspect itwon't be a better

society."

It would certainly bea very different society.People are already finding it more difficult to staymarried.

Divorce rates arerising.What would happen to marriage in a society where people lived for 140years?And what would happen to family life if 9 or 10 generations of the

same family were allalive at the same time? Research into ageing may enable women to remain fertilefor longer.And that raises the prospect of having 100-year-old

parents,or brothersand sisters born 50 years apart.We think of an elder sibling as someone who canprotect us and offer help and advice.That would be hard to do if that

sibling came from acompletely different generation.

Working life wouldalso be affected,especially if the retirement age was lifted.More people wouldstay in work for longer.That would give us the benefits of age-skill,wisdom

and good judgment.

On the otherhand,more people working for longer would create greater competition forjobs.It would make it more difficult for younger people to find a job.Top postswould

be dominated by thesame few individuals,making career progress more difficult.And how easily woulda 25 -year-old employee be able to communicate with a 1 25 -year-

old boss?

Young people wouldbe a smaller part of a society in which people lived to 140.It may be that sucha society would place less importance on guiding and educating young

people,and more onmaking life comfortable for the old.

And society wouldfeel very different if more of its members were older.There would be morewisdom, but less energy.Young people like to move about.Old people like to sit

still.Young peopletend to act without thinking.Old people tend to think without acting.Youngpeople are curious and like to cxperience different things.Old people are less

enthusiastic aboutchange.In fact,they are less,enthusiastic about everything.

The effect of anti一ageing technology is deeper than wemight think.But as the science advances,we need to think about these changesnow.

"If this couldever happen,then we'd better ask what kind of society we want to get,"saysDaniel Callahan."We had better not go anywhere near it until we havefigure those

problems out."An importantfeature of a society in which people live a long life is that______.

A.it places moreemphasis on educating the young

B.it is both wiseand energetic

C.it lacks thecuriosity to experiment what is new

D.it welcomeschanges