Hayflick on death and immortality

Damien Broderick (damien@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au)
Sun, 31 May 1998 01:38:31 +0000


Old news for some, but I've just stumbled on it:

http://www.wisc.edu/zoology/spring98/zoo258/258wk2b.html

is a Jan 97 review by Leonard Hayflick, of the celebrated Hayflick limit on
cell replications, of two books on aging and how (maybe) to avoid it:

The Clock of Ages
by JOHN J. MEDINA Cambridge University Press, 1996 ($24.95)

Reversing Human Aging
by MICHAEL FOSSEL William Morrow, 1996 ($25)

He closes, rather tendentiously,

< Although aging and death put an end to the lives of good citizens, they
also make finite the lives of tyrants, murderers and a broad spectrum of
other undesirables. Much of the continuing massive destruction of this
planet and the consequent ills that this destruction produces for humans
can be traced to overpopulation, a phenomenon that appears to show no sign
of abating. Extending the life of a population that already strains global
resources is, in the view of many, unconscionable.

< If the price to be paid for the beneficial results of aging and death is
its universal applicability, we should all pay that price-as we always have. >

Damien Broderick (gearing up for THE LAST MORTAL GENERATION)