Beyond the weak and strong life extension division: «Don’t add years to life if you cannot add life to those years»
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2022.805002Keywords:
Aging, longevity, strong life extension, weak life extensionAbstract
The philosophical and scientific debate about life extension is polarized between two views: a weak and a strong stances. They are divided over their approach to the age of Jeanne Calment, or what is the same, the maximum life span of the human species. In this article, I will evaluate this division and I will propose other alternative for thinking about the life extension possibilities. In order to do so, I will first review five key concepts in the literature, since some of them are misunderstood by the authors who defend this division. Furthermore, this division suffers from a major flaw: the failure to acknowledge that maximum life span is not a fixed number, and that there are no strong arguments to ensure that this is the limit to human longevity. Moreover, I will argue that these authors do not adequately capture the main aspect that we care about when we address the issue of improving the quality of life throughout our existence.
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