A fountain of youth?
Shhh! It’s a secret. Someone’s gotten to the CEO of Megapharm and has him convinced that a drug to dramatically slow the aging process is imminently possible. Now he’s on the warpath to get this thing. Even if it doesn’t save him personally, he will be immortalized as the greatest drug company CEO of all time for developing the ultimate lifestyle drug.
There has been a lot of recent discussion about aging being biologically programmed, and therefore potentially reversible. Even if it’s not reversible, just slowing it down would be the major drug breakthrough of all time. Staying healthy for an extra ten years would be literally priceless. It would reduce healthcare costs because there would be fewer diseases of aging. Productivity would skyrocket and social security costs would plummet as the retirement age rises to 90. And we at Megapharma would have more money than Qatar!
But wait a minute…isn’t death really the result of wear and tear; all those minor transcription errors slowly piling up over 100 (not 200) years. Sure telomeres and all that stuff might have a minor effect, but we’re not bacteria. And maybe programmed cell obsolescence isn’t just to make sure the next generation has enough room, but rather to prevent that biological scourge, cancer.
And even if it’s possible, just think of the ethical ramifications! And you thought abortion was a contentious issue. Do we have the right to artificially prolong life as a species? If you don’t die of heart disease, how about those joints and that brain? Would those organs stay youthful, too? Maybe after ten extra productive, healthier years it would produce 50 extra years of disability before the organism finally dies. Can we afford the increased medical and social costs of a population of bedridden 120 year olds?
In a last ditch effort, the Board of Megapharm has retained you to steer the CEO in the right direction. The greatest biological breakthrough there ever was or the greatest debacle in the history of civilization? It’s in your hands.
Assignment 4: Defend one of the following:
- Full speed ahead! Reversing programmed aging is feasible within a reasonable period of time, given our current knowledge. Not only can we do it, but it would be the greatest boon to our society since the dawn of creation. And to our company. Explain how you would approach drug development for this purpose and explain why it would be good for our civilization.
OR
- Don’t waste Megapharma’s resources. These biological arguments are mere speculation. Aging is largely the result of wear, tear, and errors. And even if it could be done it is socially undesirable.
Explain why you think it is unlikely that we could develop a fountain of youth drug and why you think it would be bad for us as a society if we did.
OR
- If you feel strongly, you can argue other combinations of feasibility and desirability
- we could do it (explain how) but shouldn’t (explain why)
- we can’t currently do it, but it would be a great thing (explain why) and would be worth pursuing as a long term project (explain where you would initially put resources to explore this).
Address your paper to the CEO, who has a background in academic biology.
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