Expository Essay – Extending Life

4-14-15

“I just need the medicine for my son; he’s sick,” shouts a concerned mother at her local pharmacy with the expenses of her only child’s medicine rocketing sky high. “I can’t afford it right now, but I can’t just let him get even worse,” she says urgently. Similar to medicines at a pharmacy, the ability to extend life to extreme lengths is marketable to the entire world. The extension of life comes with many advantages to improve society, but it as well comes with the disadvantages that can destroy civilization.

Extending life to near immortality could greatly advance society mentally and physically. For example, scientists can study adaptation, mutation, and evolution over hundreds to thousands of years at a time. Robert Bunsen, like many of today’s scientists, dedicated his life to his studies, continuing his experiments with explosive and toxic compounds with a seared eye. However, with an extended life span, these scientists can easily research new information of synthetic body parts, stem cell heart generation, and possible cures for cancer for much longer than the average human. In addition, in Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine, Douglas discovers his mortality as he speaks with his great-grandmother on her deathbed, which causes him to stress over his eventual demise. In our lives, we also worry about and fear our own deaths, but with an extended life this worry can be eradicated, which would free up time for societal growth. Therefore, extending life can create scientific and psychological advancements to society.

Along with its advantages, the extending of natural life has many disadvantages to lead to society’s demise. For instance, like prescription medicine, doctor visits, and dental checkups, a way to extend life, whether it be a pill, shot, or elixir, is very profitable in today’s society. While this may create business for the few companies who could afford to sell the product, this would create a “survival of the richest” environment, allowing the rich to outlive the poor, which would diminish the work force. In addition, the rate of reproduction would remain identical, but the population would increase exponentially as the life expectancy is raised. This would not only cause overpopulation, but it would also use the earth’s limited drinking water, fossil fuels, and natural gasses much faster than its populace currently uses. Thus, extension of life can lead to the destruction of society and earth’s life-sustaining qualities.

The stressed mother rifles through her bag until she scrounges her last few dollars to pay for the sacred medicine and immediately rushes to her quiet home. She sighs with relief at her luck of finding lost money hidden in her purse and is now much more relieved knowing her son will soon feel happier and healthier. Thus, life extension has both advantages that boost societal growth and disadvantages which destroy societal progression.

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