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November 9, 2005

Save, Restore and Extend

In Jon Corzine's acceptance speech after winning the race for Governor of the great state of New Jersey (in many ways, I'm still a Jersey Girl at heart), he talked about making Jersey a state that is friendly to stem cell research. He described the aim of stem cell research as finding ways to "save, restore, and extend" life.

I, for one, was ecstatic to hear a major figure in American politics both endorsing stem cell research, and mentioning the possibility of extending life. Too often, politicians hide behind the obvious uses of biotechnology to cure known diseases and disabilities, and shy away from talking about actually increasing healthy human lifespan. While I'm all for curing disease, too much focus on curing individual diseases can bleed all of the funding out of research aimed at taking on the single thing that will kill us even if we eradicate all the diseases out there: the actual biological aging process. As you read about in the repost of "Don't Ever Think That You Can't Change The Past and The Future," treating disesases is more profitable than creating anti-aging therapies, and it's easier and quicker to bring drugs to market. Huge lobbies exist for individual diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer. But when it comes to tackling the underlying problem, the root of most all destruction, it's hard to focus funding and research in the right direction.

I've blogged many times about how when you talk about actually extending healthy lifespan, you are often met with resistance to the effect of, "Isn't it selfish to want to live that long?" It's logically inconsistent: if it's not selfish to want to cure cancer or heart disease (which, after all, we may all be diagnosed with someday): why does it become selfish to want to cure aging? We can be absolutely sure that everyone around us will suffer and die as a result of biological aging if we don't do something about it... unless, of course, they get hit by a truck and die at a young age. (NOTE: I do not advocate hitting anyone with a truck in order to save them from age-related disability and death. I do, however, heartily support stem cell research that might someday repair the injuries of those injured in motor vehicle accidents.) Isn't it less selfish, more humanitarian, to fight a disease that kills everyone, discriminates not at all, and causes years and years of suffering before finally claiming its victims?

I'm proud of Corzine for having the guts to throw "extend" into his speech. The stem cell issue is controversial enough as it is, and to throw in one more element of controversy is courageous indeed. It's time that we realized that extending life *is* saving life. Most of us would put ourselves at great risk to protect those we love. If a lover, a parent, or a child were suffering from a life-threatening disease, we'd certainly go to huge expense to try to find the cure and acquire it, if it meant the difference between life and death.

Well guess what, friends. Everyone you know is suffering from a life-threatening disease. Your lover, your best friend, your parents, (but not my cats: they have assured me that they will live forever, or at least as long as I do!) are all dying of aging. Surely we should support politicians who are fighting for a cure, especially those who support stem cell research. We should also support, with whatever resources we can allocate, the most effective way to mobilize public, political and scientific will to tackle the problem.

That means... you guessed it... I still think you should donate to the Mprize.

Save lives. Restore youth, health, vitality, beauty. Extend healthy lifespans.

And enjoy your fall squash... while you still have time.

Posted by april at November 9, 2005 4:19 AM

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Posted by: Danielle at November 10, 2005 6:08 AM

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