Why Humans Should not Strive to Immortality

With the age of 80 years the human lifespan has increased a lot the last 100 years. At the beginning of the 20th century the lifespan in America was about 50 years. This means the lifespan has almost doubled in 100 years, and it is still growing. Should we do even more research to increase our lifespan, to become immortal? Or should we, just like the animals, live our own life and see how the chips fall their way.

Firstly, there are enough people on the planet already. If humans become immortal, it means only more people will get on the planet and no one would die. That means the planet only gets fuller and fuller. Then we need to search for new planets to inhabit. Although NASA is busy searching for planets and ways to colonize them, it will take years to find, and even get there. Also, with 7,6 billion people on the planet we are struggling to keep the planet alive, so how will it go with even more.

Secondly, is it ethically justified to not let people die. The idea seems interesting, living forever, until you realize you will never die. Death exists for a reason. After 80 maybe 90 years the average human thinks his life has been long enough and will die. This is not the case when you are immortal. Eventually you will think you have lived long enough, and will become very depressed, because you can’t die. The entire population will get sad and no one wants to live anymore at the age of, for example, 484054.

However, if we live forever we can save the planet. If the human race will ever become immortal, we will have all the time to save the planet. For the last decade humans are really focusing on making the planet greener, but it takes time. However, if we are immortal we have all the time in the world to come up with ideas for this problem, which we really need. We can put all the effort and time in this problem.

Also, we don’t lose our family or friends. When we, as species, become immortal, we won’t lose our family or friends to diseases like cancer. Nowadays a lot of people die to cancer. Everyone knows somebody who has the disease. If we become immortal, we won’t have this problem. We all will live forever, and won’t have to worry about losing someone we love. This is great, because we won’t need as much hospitals as we have today, which saves us money and doctors and nurses can work somewhere else.

Concluding, being immortal can have its pros and cons. Everyone has its own opinion about immortality. If humans become immortal, we need to find a way for everyone to have a place to stay. It depends from person to person if he wants to live forever. However we will have time to save the planet and make it greener. Also we won’t have to worry about losing your loved ones. Immortality really has its pros and cons, but for the next 100 years, we first need to find a way to become immortal.

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