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Bradley Allen
UWRT 1102
Prof. Gretchen
3/24/15

Expanding the Average Life Expectancy

Few of us have had relatives that had live past one hundred years of age. At some point in
the future, the average life expectancy could well surpass that. By modifying certain genes in a
mammal, scientists are able to slow down the aging process. How much they can slow it down
by is still a large question open to debate. Current, realistic educated guesses say that the average
life expectancy of humans could be around one hundred and twenty years of age. Questions are
now starting to fall under when will this treatment be available to the public, how much will it
cost, and how long can humans possibly live? Only time can tell.
For many years, scientists have been trying to understand why animals age. Some believe
that our genes are programmed to deteriorate and die, while others believe accumulated damage
to genes is the cause of aging. With these two main ideas, many theories have been thought of.
Some of the main theories are somatic DNA damage, cross-linking, programmed longevity,
endocrine theory and immunological theory. Somatic DNA damage is the idea of our DNA
deteriorating over time. Most of the time, our bodies are able to repair most cells that have been
damage. Some of the cell damage is not repairable and this will accumulate over time. CrossLinking is the theory where damage proteins, which would be broken down by enzymes, are
protected from being broken down and attach themselves to random locations. When the proteins

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start accumulating, this will begin to slow down bodily processes until it leads to your death.
Programmed longevity is the theory that aging is the result of the turning on and off of certain
genes with senescence. Endocrine theory is the idea that hormones have biological clocks that
control the pace of aging. Lastly, the immunological theory states that the immune system is
programmed to decline over time, which will increase vulnerability and be more prone to disease
and thus aging and death. Most scientists believe we age in response to multiple of these theories
(Why Do We Age).
With all of these theories in mind, scientists began experimenting with various tactics to
increase life expectancy. This also explains the wide variety of guesses to how long people could
be able to live with most educated guess between ninety to somewhere around five hundred
years of age. Very few scientists believe we could be immortal.
Scientists have found that by reducing the activity of a type of gene, the average life span
of mice increased by about twenty percent. This would increase the average life expectancy by
fifteen years. The mice were bred to only put out twenty five percent of the normal levels of
mTOR protein. This indicated that suppressing the activity of this gene makes mice live longer.
The problem now is, mice studies do not always result the same when compared to human
studies. Reducing the activity of the gene could prolong a persons life, but it is still unknown.
Even though the mice had a longer average life expectancy, some serious side effects did occur.
The mice in the study had softer bones and developed more infections than that of average mice.
Other methods of increasing the average life expectancy of mice have made it more difficult for
them to reproduce. The technology to extend the average life expectancy is there, the current
problems are the negative effects it has had on the mice and the treatment the mice got worked
for mice but that does not necessarily mean it will work for humans (Winslow).

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Even if scientists could extend the average life expectancy for humans, most people
would not want to receive the treatment. A survey was taken in August of two thousand thirteen
found that nearly seventy percent of Americans would like to live between seventy nine and one
hundred years with the median desired life expectancy at ninety years. This is only eleven years
longer than the current average life expectancy which is roughly seventy nine years. Only nine
percent of Americans would want to live longer than one hundred years old. Even if scientists
were able to extend the average life expectancy to one hundred and twenty years, fewer than nine
percent of Americans would want to live that long. Many of the respondents worry that with
longer life spans, more natural resource would be drained. Even if it would extend their life,
many people worry about the cost of the treatment. Most people said that they have plenty of
other things to spend their money on like paying off debt. Others believe that we were designed a
certain way and that scientists should not be making genes to our genes (LeWine).
In 2013, Jockey Paul Halpern was feeding his horse when it accidently bit off his finger.
His friend that was with him, picked up the end of his finger and then went to the hospital, but
the staff told them that it was too late to re-attach his finger. Halpern found Dr. Eugenio
Rodriguez who was working in the Deerfield Beach Outpatient Surgical Center. Dr. Rodriguez
had been using a revolutionary procedure called xenograft implantation. Rodriguez made a mold
of Halperns missing finger and attached it to where his finger had been bitten off. He told
Halpern to pour this powder made from pig bladder tissue for two months. After the two months,
Halperns finger had grown back almost as if it was never bitten off (McCorquodale).
This seems science fiction, but it is not. The pig bladder is used because it has a protein
scaffold which is almost identical to that of human tissue. It stimulates your body to attract your
stem cells and then the stem cells start producing the tissue that is missing (McCorquodale).

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After a couple weeks, the fingers cells including bone, soft tissue, and nail had grown into the
mold. The end result is that most of the finger grew back (McCorquodale).
The technology for extending the average life expectancy is there, it is just not ready for
the publics use. All of the ways that are being worked on to extend life expectancy have some
pretty negative effects. The experiment with the mice resulted in the mice having softer bones
and they were more prone to infections. Even if the average life expectancy was increased and if
humans had the same results as the mice did, there would be many more deadly diseases and
many more deaths or serious injuries from car accidents to falling. Elderly people already have
more fragile bones and are much more prone to infections than a middle aged adult. This
experiment would guarantee that their bones would be even more fragile and that they would be
even more susceptible to catching a disease. With these current results, the FDA would not
approve of the testing on people. With the low percent of people that would want to live past one
hundred years of age and all the possible, negative side effects of these treatments, you have to
ask yourself if it would even be worth it? Would you rather live longer but be more prone to
infections and have much more fragile bones or would you rather live a shorter, healthier life?

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Work Cited
Extending Life: Scientific Prospects and Political Obstacles. (Article, 2002) [UNC
Charlotte Libraries]. The Milbank Quarterly, 2002. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
Griffiths, Sarah. "Could Humans Live to 500 Years Old? Scientists Believe Genetic Tweaks
Could Significantly Extend Our Lifespan." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 13 Dec.
2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2015.
LeWine, Howard. "Want to Live to Age 120? Most Americans Say No - Harvard Health Blog."
Harvard Health Blog RSS. N.p., 07 Aug. 2013. Web. 1 Feb. 2015.
McCorquodale, Amanda. "Man's Finger Grows Back Thanks To Pig Bladder Powder: Report
(VIDEO)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 14 Apr.
2015.
Platt, Charles. "Programming Genes to Extend Life Span." LifeExtension.com. N.p., Sept. 2011.
Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
Than, By Ker. "Extending Human Life: Progress and Promises." LiveScience. TechMedia
Network, 24 May 2006. Web. 5 Apr. 2015.
"Why Do We Age?" Today I Found Out RSS. N.p., 11 May 2014. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.
Winslow, Ron. "Genetic Manipulation Extends Life of Mice 20%." WSJ. N.p., 29 Aug. 2013.
Web. 16 Mar. 2015.