Many people will be overjoyed at a recent news report that claims the " age cycle " can be reversed. Scientists have developed a procedure that rejuvenated old rats to a much earlier stage of their life cycle, restoring their mobility and removing the ravages of age. It is hoped that further research may make this applicable to humans.
It sounds like the " Fountain of Youth " fable, but even if it were true, it would change the world as we know it and bring unintended consequences. The economic system in which we live is geared to the progression of humans through the various stages of life. We enter this world as babies and then begin a learning cycle that employs a vast number of people. As young adults we commence an earning career - and we usually pair off with a member of the opposite sex - and when this union produces babies - the cycle begins again. The coming of old age is natural attrition. The old die - making way for coming generations.
Just imagine the blockage if people stopped dieing. Instead of progressing through the job chain, the old merely became rejuvenated and slipped back to an earlier stage in the cycle. It would be a relentless increase in world population - and it would shut school leavers out from any hope of staking a claim in the work force. It would completely skew the world of economics - and it would pose a dire threat to the world food supply.
Worse - this " return to youth " would be selective. Producing the required drugs and treatment would be initially at least - very expensive and it would be hogged by the very wealthy of western countries. Of course, demand would be huge on a world wide basis, and as we know from our experience of the drug trade - when demand is insatiable, supply is not far behind, even if laws forbid it.
There would be no hope of stopping this procedure from becoming available to the masses. Organised crime would fund the supply and radical countries would profit from becoming the manufacturing source. No doubt world bodies would try and regain control. A limit on child bearing would be a natural option, but making that mandatory would be an entirely different matter.
Fortunately, disaster is not imminent. The success of moving promising experimental procedures from animals to humans is strewn with failure. We often hear of " medical breakthroughs in the treatment of various diseases - but each comes with the warning that application to humans is still many years into the future.
Immortality has long been a dream of the human race. If it ever happens, the reality might be far worse than our most vivid nightmare !
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