Gregory Stock
UCLA

The word 'ethics' is one whose meaning is hard to pin down.   Some people may think that the study of ethics is about how one's feelings tell them the difference between right and wrong.  Some may say that it has to do with their religious beliefs.  Others may describe ethics as doing what the law says is right, while others may think that its meaning lies in what the consensus of society accepts as proper behavior.

Ethics is actually not any of these as they all depend on personal perspective or are too limited in scope.  Ethics is much more encompassing instead involving permanent representations of evolving aspects of human life.  From this source,  

Ethics is two things. First, ethics refers to well based standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics, for example, refers to those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards also include those that enjoin virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty. And, ethical standards include standards relating to rights, such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right to privacy. Such standards are adequate standards of ethics because they are supported by consistent and well founded reasons.

Secondly, ethics refers to the study and development of one's ethical standards. As mentioned above, feelings, laws, and social norms can deviate from what is ethical. So it is necessary to constantly examine one's standards to ensure that they are reasonable and well-founded. Ethics also means, then, the continuous effort of studying our own moral beliefs and our moral conduct, and striving to ensure that we, and the institutions we help to shape, live up to standards that are reasonable and solidly-based.

 We can see from the definition of ethics above that ethics deals largely with how we treat each other.  Ethics help us describe what interactions and behaviors are basic to human nature while at the same time requiring a constant evaluation of what that nature is as it evolves.   

Ethics and Life-Extension

In regards to the ethics of medicine and biology, a division of applied ethics normally referred as bioethics,  we can imagine that there are many bioethical questions arising from the development of technologies that can increase lifespan.  Many of these questions revolve around the question of where resources should be allocated to obtain the maximum benefit for the greatest number of people. These questions are not unique to medical technologies but can be generally applied to any resource which can be viewed as a common good. Some questions however are specific to  the consequences of life extension while others revolve around the moving line that distinguishes therapy from enhancement and whether moving beyond historical biological limitations can be considered ethical.

In this symposium feature we attempt to examine the bioethics of life-extension and in doing so we bring together two opposing views, one held by Gregory Stock,  a well-known advocate of the use of technology for the enhancement of the human condition, and one held by Daniel Callahan, a renowned bioethicist who has written much on the unethical nature of the use of resources to do so.  Who is right?  Can we tell?

Below are some of the more reasonable arguments people use against the development of technologies that increase lifespan.

1) It is alright to use technology to allow a normal lifespan, but unethical to allow the extension beyond what is normal. 
2) These technologies would be only available to the wealthy. 
3) We should use the resources to help reduce poverty and suffering for the less fortunate of the world instead of extending lifespan.

These are the arguments which the speakers will try to address in this 'head-to-head' session.  There are many other arguments that one might come up with, and perhaps you might wish to ask a question or two during the time set aside for audience participation.

Some Background

Both Daniel Callahan and Gregory Stock have been arguing these points for many years against a diverse array of opponents, including each other on occasion.  At the heart of much of the difference in their opinions is the distinction between individual rights and societal benefits.  Callahan subscrbes much to the philosophy of communitarianism while Stock's views seem more in tune with the principles of social liberalism.  It shouldn't be too surprising to find these common themes at the center of the argument.  Long have individual liberties been a point of discussion when balancing them with social equitabillity and the allocation of resources.  Often science outstrips society's ability to address the far-reaching consequences new abilities bring.  Extending lifespan is one of the most fundamental changes human society will ever undergo and we can't begin the discussion of some of these issues soon enough to be prepared when these technologies do arrive. Please have a look through some of the material at the links below to get an idea of the positions of these two individuals, and other's, on the bioethics of life-extension and no doubt you will find much food for thought there.

Links

Warning: Bioethics May Be Hazardous to Your Health (1999)- Ronald Bailey, Reason Magazine

The Prolongevists Speak Up: The Life-Extension Ethics Session at the 10th Anual Congress of the International Association of Biomedical Gerontology- The American Journal of Bioethics (2003)

Is Research a Moral Obligation? Plagues, Death and Aging - Daniel Callahan (2003)

Would Doubling the Human Lifespan Be a Net Positive or Negative for Us, Either as Individuals or as a Society? Point-Counterpoint - Gregory B. Stock and Daniel Callahan (2005)

Longer Life Could Have a Downside - LiveScience/MSNBC article (May 2006)

The Economic Value of Medical Research - Topel and Murphy 1998/9

The Benefits of Medical Research and the Role of the NIH - Office of the Chairman, Connie Mack - US Senate - 2000 (2.5 MB)

"The Value of Life and the Value of Life Extension" - Steven Horrobin, 2006

"The Ethics of Aging Intervention and Life-Extension" - Steven Horrobin, 2004