(Clare-‐07039875) (Dawn-‐07013647) SP1S09 Intro-‐Science Communication Who wants to live forever? (Pippa-‐07031297) (Jack-‐07023367)
Who wants to live forever? Have you ever sat and wondered when, how and at what age you are going to die? Well I guess most of us have. An attempt to highlight a few issues from, getting older, prolonging life and conscious decisions on how we want to die, really brings to the fore the concept of death and immortality. The life expectancy of humans has been steadily increasing at a rate of 2.2 years per decade (or 5 hours a day) for the last 100 years (New Scientist, p.42). Due to advances in medical technology, quality of life and medication, prolonged life expectancy does not seem to be slowing down. Whether it is in the interest of medical science or for the interest of mankind we shall not know, both seem to work hand in hand. We also must consider the impact of longevity on the availability of resources for increasing world populations. COPING WITH OLD AGE & ILLNESS
Do you think social service facilities provide enough care?
For the very young the issue of death does not really emerge, unless they experience events of death, either through their own trials of illness or other peoples. It is the older generations that think about ‘passing on’ and what they will experience.
“Everybody is assessed to their needs but due to lack of funding it is often impossible to provide full care, which is four visits per day. As most clients have to pay for their service, there is an economic limit that people can afford; often having to leave out important care needs, because they don’t have the money. Therefore family have to become involved, if indeed they are able”.
An interview with Jennifer Andrews, recently retired home care assistant for social services after 25 years, tells us of her clients who think about their own death; how the elderly and infirm suffer quite painful and humiliating lives; living with the process of degeneration of the body and mind.
Do clients talk about death and how they would like to die? “Yes, they often say ‘I wish I could die tomorrow’, loneliness is as much a killer as a terminal illness, especially if they are in 24 hour pain. Usually it is only the face of the carer that they see and talk over their problems with. We are usually their lifeline. Where do you think social care will be heading in the future? “Rapid response teams are going to be the future, where the carers visit the service users only after leaving hospital. After 1
(Clare-‐07039875) (Dawn-‐07013647) SP1S09 Intro-‐Science Communication Who wants to live forever? (Pippa-‐07031297) (Jack-‐07023367)
recovery is apparent the clients are then re-‐assessed, care may be reduced especially where family is available to take over their care”. As people are living longer what affect do you think it will have on family structure? “If the family is prepared to take on care of a relative it will greatly affect family life, putting strain on relationships, finance and freedom; often breaking down a family unit. Because of the lack good of homes for the elderly, family are often pressured into taking on care full time” How do you feel about your future now you have retired? “Well it does worry me. I suffer from Arthritis and I hope that if I need care I will find a good carer just like I was. But I do have support from family when I need it” • Medicines have proved to be good at curing some infections or conditions, so much so that death can be postponed or eliminated in the short term (New Scientist, p.43). Unfortunately the by product of this is that people live longer into old age, when extreme degenerative diseases and the use of medicines, can cause long term suffering. Even major causes of death like a heart attack have now been changed to a lesser heart failure. Conditions usually thought of in the past as certain cause for death, such as diabetes, AIDS and many cancers have now become manageable disabilities (New Scientist, p.43). Aging is a fact of life and a condition that must be acknowledged. We should stop thinking about what we suffer at the end of life and find out how to cure the aging process and the ailments that come with
it. People should be given the option to choose how and when they die. Many people feel they still have a lot to give to humanity, feeling their time in this world is too short and would like to live forever. Preservation of their bodies for future advances in medical technology is the only chance of living again. Some cannot wait to leave this world as they but would like to ‘choose’ how they die. Euthanasia is a humane system of dying for human beings, usually by a self administered lethal injection. It is only considered when the person is sane and has no hope of recovery from a condition that is slowly degenerative over time, often seeming like torture to the patient. Unfortunately British Legislation states it is unlawful to take one’s own life in such circumstances (EDM, BMA). What is death? How can we understand its processes to the body and mind? MISDIAGNOSIS & DEFINITION OF DEATH The fear of death is completely natural and valuable to have, because it is part of our ‘fight or flight’ mechanism that has evolved over millions of years. Everybody is afraid of death, because our own consciousness is the only consciousness we really know; we all have trouble conceiving our own death. There are three different fears of death: The first fear is the actual process of dying; some people think that how one dies is a measure of the way in which he has lived. So a good death is an indication of a good life. We are afraid that death 2
(Clare-‐07039875) (Dawn-‐07013647) SP1S09 Intro-‐Science Communication Who wants to live forever? (Pippa-‐07031297) (Jack-‐07023367)
will be painful and we will be frightened and therefore we will not die in peace and dignity. The second fear of death is what happens after we die. Most people believe in an afterlife. As long as they believe an afterlife will be pleasant and happy, they have nothing to fear. However if a person believes his/her afterlife is going to be painful or unpleasant; thinking he/she will be punished in some kind of hell, then there will be a fear of death. The third fear of death is the fear of extinction. Death as an end of all consciousness, as a blank or nothingness, is something to fear. Studies of people who are actually near death, indicates, that fear is not a reaction to impending death. People who are terminally ill go through a series of stages that can result in the acceptance of death and a peaceful expiration. People who are elderly reveal that impending death brings more depression than fear, although some elderly actually welcome death. Younger, healthier people who are further from death have a greater fear of death than people who are old and ill and closer to death. (Solve your problem). These three studies show how different types of people cope with death; some fear it while others accept it.
pretty nor painless, though surprisingly swift (New Scientist, p.54). Heart attack is the most common form of death. This can cause sudden pain, desperate chest-‐clutching and immediate collapse (New Scientist, p54). Fire is a long and painful death. The hot smoke burns the throat and airways, which makes it hard to breath. Burns inflict immediate and intense pain through stimulation of the pain nerves in the skin (New Scientist, p.55) As well as these ways of dying there is old age and terminal illness, such as cancer. People with terminal illness or people that are elderly fade away slowly. They can decide where they would like to die, or some might refer to it as, ‘To Rest in Peace’. A survey was carried out of ten people; they were asked where they would prefer to die. These are the results: Where do people prefer to die?
% of people
At home In a hospice In a hospital No preference
74 5 2 19
There are many different ways of dying; the following are just a few that people might prefer. Drowning has a certain dark romance to it. People just slip beneath the waves. Suffocating to death in water is neither
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(Clare-‐07039875) (Dawn-‐07013647) SP1S09 Intro-‐Science Communication Who wants to live forever? (Pippa-‐07031297) (Jack-‐07023367)
Near death experiences can happen all the time and can be unexpected. For instance someone who has a heart attack can survive depending on how severe the attack is. Also many accidents such as drowning, road collision etc, can be the result of a near death experience. The person could loose consciousness for a while but then somehow become resuscitated and breathe again. There is a case study about a person called Pam Reynolds, who had survived whole brain death. Pam’s extraordinary near death experience occurred while undergoing a rare surgical procedure to remove a brain aneurysm. The procedure required: 1. Her to be put unconscious using anaesthetic 2. Her body temperature lowered to 60 degrees 3. Her heart and breathing stopped 4. The brain waves allowed to flatten, and 5. The blood drained from the head While in this condition she floated out of her body and watched the doctors operate on her lifeless body. Later she was able to describe the surgical instruments, the conversation and the procedures performed during her surgery (NDE & Death). Consider these near death experiences for a while, Can we manipulate brains and cryogenically preserve humans to extend life after illness and death then repair them in the future?
LIFE EXTENSION One way that the human race has come up with when it comes to dealing with death is simply to extend life. There are several ways to do this, however at this stage these methods are mostly theoretical and are not yet in practice. Cryogenics is the process in which a living body is frozen so that it may be brought back to life at some point in the future. Most people who express an interest in this branch of life extension are suffering from a long-‐term medical condition. They live in hope that if they are frozen in a cryogenic chamber, they will be ‘brought back’ at a time in the future that there is a cure for the illness they are suffering from. There are two major problems when it comes to bringing people back to life after being cryogenically frozen. The first is that when a body is frozen, most of the cells are destroyed by ice crystals forming inside them. The other problem is that if a body is successfully brought back to life, any healthy cells that are left in the body die due to lack of food and oxygen (The Straight Dope). Another method of eternal life is through technological means. Detailed images of the brain have already been taken, but some researchers have a more impressive aim. They plan to use the methods of dissecting and studying the brain in the hope that the thoughts and emotions contained within it can be downloaded onto a computer, allowing the person to 4
(Clare-‐07039875) (Dawn-‐07013647) SP1S09 Intro-‐Science Communication Who wants to live forever? (Pippa-‐07031297) (Jack-‐07023367)
live eternally as a machine (New Scientist, p.46). Some people prefer this theory to cryogenics, for one main reason. With cryogenics, once a body has been brought back to life after being frozen, the person is still going to die after a period of time. But with this technological immortality, the person can exist as a machine for eternity – they would actually be immortal. Of course, the average lifespan has already been extended in the past 100 years or so. In the 19th Century, the average person was not expected to live beyond the age of around 50. Yet in 2004, the average life expectancy was almost 80. This is a vast increase in such a short space of time, due to improvements in quality of life (National Center for Health Statistics).
As you can see from the graph, there has been a steady increase in life expectancy over this time (National Center for Health Statistics). At some point in the future, who knows how, high life expectancy may rise? It may come to a point that it is a common occurrence for people to live up to 150 years old or maybe even more. Whatever happens in the future, the human race is always going to be interested in ways of extending life. Whether this is for personal reasons, or due to the fear of dying, may not be known. But the business of life extension may become a lot more popular in the near future.
Life Extension magazine is the monthly publication of the Life Extension Foundation, a non-‐profit organization, whose long-‐range goal is the extension of the healthy human lifespan This graph shows the increase in life expectancy from 1900 to 2004.
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