Can We Live Longer and Should We?

Abstract

This article explores several interrelated questions: First, is biomedicine, in line with transhumanist impulses, ‘medicalizing’ natural life processes such as aging into a ‘disease’ to be overcome? Second, does biomedical evidence indicate the possibility of radical life extension, and what does the Islamic scripture say of this possibility? Are these two domains of knowledge in conflict? Third, if pushing human longevity is scientifically possible, should we do so? The essay begins with an account of transhumanism and its relationship to biomedicine and contemporary healthcare. Next, the biomedicalization of the aging phenomenon is introduced to allow for analyzing the role of biomedicine in its attempt to ‘transcend’ aging, thereby radically enhancing longevity. Then we juxtapose and critically analyze scientific and scriptural evidence on the changes in average life expectancy over time, to demonstrate whether the two domains of knowledge can be aligned or whether one source of knowledge must be privileged over the other. The final section attends to the moral boundaries of medical practice. Here, we introduce the reader to ethical guideposts such as the theological notion of changing the creation of God, which is used to proscribe human enhancement and alteration activities. Lastly, we outline an intervention that links various Islamic moral sciences to theoretical, practical and applied bioethical deliberation processes.