Do you want to live forever?

Even if we have am extremely healthy diet and lifestyle, the human body is programmed to wear out at a maximum of about 120 years, and usually less.

We all have a biological clock inside us which determines the moment when our organs cease to function properly. This is because our cells have stopped renewing themselves and our body can no longer repair itself.

This is also the moment when we are more likely to begin to suffer from the diseases of old age. However, rapid advances in DNA research are beginning to throw light on the secrets of the ageing process.

By the end of this century we could literally have the power of life over death.
Although it has long been accepted that humans have a fixed lifespan, it is also a fact that certain other organisms, such as reptiles and amphibians, appear to live indefinitely.

The only reason we do not see 500-year-old alligators is because in the wild their lives are always in danger, from man, from pollution and from other animals. When they are kept in zoo they do not seem to age at all after they are fully grown. The same is true about some species of fish, which grow indefinitely and show no sings of ageing.

The existence of animals with no fixed lifespan seems to indicate that an age gene really does exist. It is this gene which scientists are searching for, which may retard or repair damage to the body caused by ageing.

Another new area of research involves the oxidation theory, which says that ageing is caused by the same process that makes iron rust. In controlled experiments, the lifespans of certain animals were shown to be lengthened with anti-oxidants; for example, the lifespan of mice can be increased by 30%.

Anti-oxidants are already being used in face creams and other cosmetics, and they are likely to plan an important part in keeping people physically young.

Perhaps the most immediate advance we are likely to see in the battle to halt the ageing process will be organ replacement. By the year 2020 it is likely that we will be replacing injured bones or even organs like livers and kidneys with one’s “grown” in laboratories.

By 2050 perhaps every organ in the body, except the brain, will have become commercially available. Recent experiments also show that it may one day be possible to “grow” new organs inside our body to replace worn-out ones, something which lizards and lizards and alligators already do.

Suddenly immortality seems within reach. We can begin to imagine a future where we are born, we grow to maturity, but we never grow old and die. But do we really want to live forever?