Coping with Methuselah Essay - 814 Words

Coping with Methuselah Lu’Ciana S. Knight Eng./215 Date February 26, 2013 Tracy A. Boothe Coping with Methuselah Methuselah was a patriarch of the Bible who was said to have lived for 969 years. In the essay â€Å"Coping with Methuselah† they discuss the possibility of manipulating the genetics that shape living beings. Also, with the declining rate of human mortality year after year we will soon see humans living well in to a century or more. With this rise in life span also comes a rise in healthcare, pension eligibility age and social security and Medicare cost. If it is possible for the molecular biology to be made to lengthen a human’s lifespan, at what cost will we pay to attain such a non-God given gift. Henry J. Aaron is†¦show more content†¦Furthermore, how soon will this be attainable? To even begin to conduct such the testing would require many years of research and government approval. It is not possible for a person to predict the timing or extent of advances of molecular biology just as a person is unable to predict when a cure or prevention will be discovered for a disease. We would all love to obtain the gift to live forever but is it humanly possible. Also what would be the quality of that life? With the extension of human life you know have to take into consideration the population, the amount of care that will be needed in a later age as well as the cost of it all. While the more well of society would be able to afford this medical miracle, those less fortunate would not. Would this then be considered as Government Murder for not providing this to all; just as would it be considered suicide for those that would refuse the treatment? Furthermore, this would not be confined to one nation; it would be available to all. Already the longevity of a person’s life shows in Japan. The population of the elderly is 71 percent as large as the working age. Naturally humans are living a longer life span and the mortality rate drops ever year. So with this being said the working age is growing higher as well. In the United States the percentage would be much less because of the more than average rate of immigrants that will keep the age of the working population growing. In conclusion a