There is a universal desire in all socio-economic groups in the world’s 196 countries to live good lives for longer. But what is a simple mission statement raises some of the world’s most thought-provoking questions: at what point do our ethics stop pushing our biological limits through experimental science? How much is too much?
Medical and scientific experts unequivocally agree that humans’ average lifespan can continue to rise, but there is little consensus on exactly how much. There are few comparisons. Humans’ current average life expectancy has doubled since 1900 to 71.4 years.
Aubrey de Grey, the chief science officer of the California-based Sens Research Foundation, argues that society has a fatalistic attitude to longevity and that the first person to reach 1,000 years old could already be alive. Elizabeth Blackburn, who won the Nobel Prize in 2009 for research on telomeres and the genetics of ageing, said raising the average lifespan to triple digits is not overly ambitious.