StemCell Therapy

Stanford and Harvard Universities have announced some astounding breakthroughs in stem cell research which raise hopes that we may postpone death, perhaps indefinitely. We age because stem cells lose the ability to produce new cells to replace those which are dying. When the researchers introduced blood from young mice into the vascular systems of old mice, the results were rejuvenated hearts and muscles and enhanced endurance. The brains of the old mice also responded with a burst of neurons which greatly increased memory and smell. The secret seems to be a protein molecule named CDF11.

The researchers are excited, if cautious, about the implications for us humans. Astronauts headed for Mars around 2030 would benefit immensely because it will be a very long journey and space travelers are subject to great stress as well as extra radiation. The future possibilities for mankind as a whole are staggering. What if we could live two or five centuries or even longer? Therefore we must ask, What is life without the anticipation of death?

Obviously, our already overpopulated earth would be inundated in a few decades. There are at least three further implications.

First, Ernest Becker, in his award-winning The Denial of Death, claims that some of our greatest achievements in art, architecture and science as well as heroic deeds arise from a motivation, largely unconscious, to create symbolic immortalities which will outlast our brief lifetimes. It must be one of our reasons for having children. That could apply to other areas as well, such as establishing national parks or even the research indicated above.

A second response to our awareness that we are mortal is the form of love called Eros. From Plato to Freud, thinkers have recognized that Eros love, the yearning to fulfill the self by uniting with something other than self, is awakened most be the knowledge that we and those we care for will one day die. Eros love is deeply related to Thanatos, or death. Eros runs through the whole range of experience, from sexual desire to attraction to the beautiful to longing for the Divine. Prolonged life without Eros could be a protracted bore.

A third example of how death influences our consciousness is found in Martin Heigeggers influential Being and Time. Our consciousness is always tensing toward the future. Life is constantly running forward toward death. That anxiety, or care, can bring us back to the present and awaken in us care in another sense, as caring or responsibility. We can become shepherds of Being by actualizing our potential and by taking a courageous attitude toward non-Being experienced as guilt, emptiness and finitude. Further, we can go beyond imposing our constructs on nature and let it reveal its Being to us as beautiful, uncanny and embracing.

In summary, this research appears to have real implications for our future. We shall wait and see. Meanwhile, our attitude toward dying will probably be the usual, well expressed in the country western song: Lord, Im ready to go when you call me. Just give me a little more time.

Visit link:
Might We Live Forever? - Ken Vos - Caledonian Record

This entry was posted on May 14, 2017 at 2:43 am and is filed under Death by Stem Cells. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |