Can We Live Longer and Should We?
Radical Life Extension, Biomedicine, and Islamic Bioethics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55613/jeet.v34i2.153Keywords:
Life enhancement, extreme longevity, Islamic epistemology, Islam and scienceAbstract
This article explores several interrelated questions: First, is biomedicine, in line with transhumanist impulses, ‘medicalizing’ natural life processes such as aging into a ‘disease’ to be overcome? Second, does biomedical evidence indicate the possibility of radical life extension, and what does the Islamic scripture say of this possibility? Are these two domains of knowledge in conflict? Third, if pushing human longevity is scientifically possible, should we do so? The essay begins with an account of transhumanism and its relationship to biomedicine and contemporary healthcare. Next, the biomedicalization of the aging phenomenon is introduced to allow for analyzing the role of biomedicine in its attempt to ‘transcend’ aging, thereby radically enhancing longevity. Then we juxtapose and critically analyze scientific and scriptural evidence on the changes in average life expectancy over time, to demonstrate whether the two domains of knowledge can be aligned or whether one source of knowledge must be privileged over the other. The final section attends to the moral boundaries of medical practice. Here, we introduce the reader to ethical guideposts such as the theological notion of changing the creation of God, which is used to proscribe human enhancement and alteration activities. Lastly, we outline an intervention that links various Islamic moral sciences to theoretical, practical and applied bioethical deliberation processes.
References
al-Haddad, I. A. I. A. (1991). The Lives of Man: A Guide to the Human States: Before Life, In the World, and After Death. Fons Vitae. https://fonsvitae.com/product/the-lives-of-man/
al-Zarqani, I. S. M. (1990). Sharh al-Zarqani'ala Muwatta'al-Imam Malik. Dar al-Fikr.
Al‐Ahsan, A. (1986). The Quranic Concept of Ummah. Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs. Journal, 7(2), 606-616.
Ali, M. (2018). The “bio” in biomedicine: Evolution, assumptions, and ethical implications. In ISLAMIC PERSPECTIVES ON THE PRINCIPLES OF BIOMEDICAL ETHICS: Muslim Religious Scholars and Biomedical Scientists in Face-To-Face Dialogue with Western Bioethicists (pp. 41-67). World Scientific.
Aligabi, Z. (2020). Reflections on Avicenna’s impact on medicine: his reach beyond the middle east. Journal of community hospital internal medicine perspectives, 10(4), 310-312.
Belete, T. M. (2021). The current status of gene therapy for the treatment of cancer. Biologics: Targets and Therapy, 67-77.
Biehl, J. K., & Russell, B. (2009). Introduction to stem cell therapy. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 24(2), 98-103.
Bostrom, N. (2005). Transhumanist values. Journal of philosophical research, 30(Supplement), 3-14.
Bostrom, N. (2014). Introduction—The transhumanist FAQ: A general introduction. Transhumanism and the body: The world religions speak, 1-17.
Campbell, L. A. (2020). Motivations for Pursuing Radical Life Extension.
Canudas-Romo, V. (2010). Three measures of longevity: Time trends and record values. Demography, 47(2), 299-312.
Center, P. R. (2011). The Future of The Global Muslim Population: Main Factors Driving Population Growth. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2011/01/27/future-of-the-global-muslim-population-main-factors/#ftn9_rtn
David, R. M., & Doherty, A. T. (2017). Viral vectors: the road to reducing genotoxicity. Toxicological Sciences, 155(2), 315-325.
Davoudpour, S., & Davis, J. K. (2022). Life Extension and Overpopulation: Demography, Morals, and the Malthusian Objection. HEC Forum,
De Kruif, P. (1932). Men against death. Harcourt.
Doorani, S. (2023). Mind-Uploading: A Psychoanalytic Analysis of Transcendence and Avatar and the Appeal of Artificial Immortality.
Dorling, J. L., Van Vliet, S., Huffman, K. M., Kraus, W. E., Bhapkar, M., Pieper, C. F., Stewart, T., Das, S. K., Racette, S. B., & Roberts, S. B. (2021). Effects of caloric restriction on human physiological, psychological, and behavioral outcomes: highlights from CALERIE phase 2. Nutrition Reviews, 79(1), 98-113.
Dumas, A., & Turner, B. S. (2007). The life-extension project: A sociological critique. Health Sociology Review, 16(1), 5-17.
Encyclopedia, S. C. (2022). Civil Registration. Scholarly Community Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/33277
Fadel, M. (2008). The True, the Good, and the Reasonable: The Theological and Ethical Roots of Public Reason in Islamic Law. The Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, 21(01), 5-69. (Law)
Flanagan, E. W., Most, J., Mey, J. T., & Redman, L. M. (2020). Calorie restriction and aging in humans. Annual review of nutrition, 40, 105-133.
Fontana, L., Partridge, L., & Longo, V. D. (2010). Extending healthy life span—from yeast to humans. science, 328(5976), 321-326.
Fudge, B. (2007). The Men of the Cave: Tafsir, Tragedy and Tawfiq Al-Oakim. Arabica, 54, 1.
Fukuda, H., Ishiguro, C., Ono, R., & Kiyohara, K. (2023). The Longevity Improvement & Fair Evidence (LIFE) study: overview of the study design and baseline participant profile. Journal of epidemiology, 33(8), 428-437.
Gaitán, L. (2019). Heaven on Earth: The Mind Uploading Project as Secular Eschatology. Theology and Science, 17(3), 403-416.
Garay, R. P. (2021). Investigational drugs and nutrients for human longevity. Recent clinical trials registered in ClinicalTrials. gov and clinicaltrialsregister. eu. Expert opinion on investigational drugs, 30(7), 749-758.
Green, C. L., Lamming, D. W., & Fontana, L. (2022). Molecular mechanisms of dietary restriction promoting health and longevity. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, 23(1), 56-73.
Hughes, J. (2010). Contradictions from the enlightenment roots of transhumanism. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 35(6), 622-640.
Ibn Abī al-Ḥazm, ʿ. (2008). Al-Mūjaz Fī Al-Ṭibb. ed. by ʿAbd al-Karīm al-ʿAzbāwī. Wizāra al-ʾAwqāf.
Ingram, D. K., Zhu, M., Mamczarz, J., Zou, S., Lane, M. A., Roth, G. S., & DeCabo, R. (2006). Calorie restriction mimetics: an emerging research field. Aging cell, 5(2), 97-108.
IslamQA. (2013). How Long Did Noah (peace be upon him) live? Islam Question & Answer. Retrieved 24 March from https://islamqa.info/en/answers/105695/how-long-did-noah-peace-be-upon-him-live
Jackson, R. (2020). Muslim and Supermuslim. Springer.
Jones, R. (2016). Against Transhumanism: The Delusion of Technological Transcendence. Retrieved 14 June 2024 from http://www.softmachines.org/wordpress/?p=1772
Jotterand, F. (2008). Beyond therapy and enhancement: The alteration of human nature. NanoEthics, 2, 15-23.
Juengst, E. T. (2004). Enhancement uses of medical technology.
Kass, L. R. (2004). L’Chaim and its limits: why not immortality. The fountain of youth: cultural, scientific, and ethical perspectives on a biomedical goal, 249-267.
Krieger, N. (2024). Epidemiology and the people's health: theory and context. Oxford University Press.
Lala, I. (2020). Germ-inating solutions or gene-rating problems: An Islamic perspective on human germline gene editing. J Relig Health, 59(4), 1855-1869.
Li, K., Liu, Y., Cao, H., Zhang, Y., Gu, Z., Liu, X., Yu, A., Kaphle, P., Dickerson, K. E., & Ni, M. (2020). Interrogation of enhancer function by enhancer-targeting CRISPR epigenetic editing. Nature communications, 11(1), 485.
Li, Y. (2021). Modern epigenetics methods in biological research. Methods, 187, 104-113.
Liang, Y., Liu, C., Lu, M., Dong, Q., Wang, Z., Wang, Z., Xiong, W., Zhang, N., Zhou, J., & Liu, Q. (2018). Calorie restriction is the most reasonable anti-ageing intervention: a meta-analysis of survival curves. Scientific reports, 8(1), 5779.
Lombard, J. (2023). Ageing and Death: A Focus on How to Transcend Diseases for Transhumanist Movements.
Lorrimar, V. (2018). Human flourishing, joy, and the prospect of radical life extension. The Expository Times, 129(12), 554-561.
Macrotrends. (n.d.). World Life Expectancy 1950-2024. Macrotrends. Retrieved 24 March from https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/WLD/world/life-expectancy
Manzocco, R. (2019). Transhumanism. Engineering the Human Condition. Suiza: Springer.
Mazini, L., Rochette, L., Admou, B., Amal, S., & Malka, G. (2020). Hopes and limits of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in wound healing. International journal of molecular sciences, 21(4), 1306.
Mobayed, T. (2017). Immortality on Earth: Transhumanism through Islamic lenses. Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, 1-26.
Mohammed, H., & Jureidini, R. (2022). Umma and the nation-state: dilemmas in refuge ethics. Journal of International Humanitarian Action, 7(1), 17.
More, M. (1990). Transhumanism: Towards a futurist philosophy. Extropy, 6(6), 11.
Most, J., Tosti, V., Redman, L. M., & Fontana, L. (2017). Calorie restriction in humans: an update. Ageing research reviews, 39, 36-45.
Musa, A. Y. (2009). A Thousand Years, Less Fifty: Toward a Quranic View of Extreme Longevity. In Religion and the Implications of Radical Life Extension (pp. 123-131). Springer.
Nguyen, H., Zarriello, S., Coats, A., Nelson, C., Kingsbury, C., Gorsky, A., Rajani, M., Neal, E. G., & Borlongan, C. V. (2019). Stem cell therapy for neurological disorders: A focus on aging. Neurobiology of disease, 126, 85-104.
NIH. (2022). The Basics. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Retrieved 19 March 2024 from https://www.nih.gov/health-information/nih-clinical-research-trials-you/basics
Ortiz-Ospina, E. (2017). "Life Expectancy" – What does this actually mean? Our World in Data. Retrieved 4 July 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy-how-is-it-calculated-and-how-should-it-be-interpreted
Padela, A. I. (2022). Integrating Science and Scripture to Produce Moral Knowledge: Assessing Maṣlaḥa and Ḍarūra in Islamic Bioethics and the Case of Organ Donation. In Islam and Biomedicine (pp. 295-316). Springer.
Padela, A. I. (2024). Maqasid al Shariah and Biomedicine: Bridging Moral, Ethical, and Policy Discourses. International Institute for Islamic Thought.
Padela, A. I., Ali, M., & Yusuf, A. (2021). Aligning medical and Muslim morality: an Islamic bioethical approach to applying and rationing life sustaining ventilators in the COVID-19 pandemic era. Journal of Islamic Ethics, 7(1-2), 129-164.
Padela, A. I., & Moosa, E. (2021). Medicine and Shariah : a dialogue in Islamic bioethics. University of Notre Dame Press.
Pandey, P., & Balekar, N. (2018). Target-specific delivery: An insight. In Drug Targeting and Stimuli Sensitive Drug Delivery Systems (pp. 117-154). Elsevier.
Parker, R. E., & Achaval, V. G. (2017). The Myth of Increasing Life Expectancy and Its Social Policy Implications. Journal of Sociological Research, 8(2), 17.
Partridge, B., Lucke, J., Bartlett, H., & Hall, W. (2009). Ethical, social, and personal implications of extended human lifespan identified by members of the public. Rejuvenation research, 12(5), 351-357.
Petr, M., Matiyevskaya, F., Osborne, B., Berglind, M., Reves, S., Zhang, B., Ezra, M. B., Marin, L. M. C., Syahzha, M. F., & Mediavilla, M. C. (2024). Pharmacological interventions in human aging. Ageing research reviews, 102213.
Porter, A. (2017). Bioethics and transhumanism. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 42(3), 237-260.
Razzak, J. A., Khan, U. R., Azam, I., Nasrullah, M., Pasha, O., Malik, M., & Ghaffar, A. (2011). Health disparities between Muslim and non-Muslim countries. EMHJ-Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 17 (9), 654-664, 2011.
Robine, J.-M., Allard, M., Herrmann, F. R., & Jeune, B. (2019). The real facts supporting Jeanne Calment as the oldest ever human. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, 74(Supplement_1), S13-S20.
Sartell, E., & Padela, A. I. (2015). Adab and its significance for an Islamic medical ethics. J Med Ethics, 41(9), 756-761. https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2014-102276
Scanlon, J. (2020). Gene Editing in Healthcare as it Relates to Oncological Practices.
Schuler, E. (2021). ICD-11 and an argument about "old age". The Oxford Institute of Population Ageing. https://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/blog/ICD-11-and-an-argument-about-old%20age%20
Shabana, A. (2022). Between treatment and enhancement: Islamic discourses on the boundaries of human genetic modification. Journal of Religious Ethics, 50(3), 386-411.
Shetty, A. K., Kodali, M., Upadhya, R., & Madhu, L. N. (2018). Emerging anti-aging strategies-scientific basis and efficacy. Aging and disease, 9(6), 1165.
Somerville, M. A. (2009). The ethical imagination: Journeys of the human spirit. McGill-Queen's Press-MQUP.
Statistics, N. R. C. C. o. N. (2009). The US Vital Statistics System: A National Perspective. Vital Statistics: Summary of a Workshop,
Sulaiman, M. E. (2020). Seven Stages of Life in Islam. IslamiCity. https://www.islamicity.org/7887/seven-stages-of-life-in-islam/
Tenchov, R., Sasso, J. M., Wang, X., & Zhou, Q. A. (2024). Antiaging Strategies and Remedies: A Landscape of Research Progress and Promise. ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 15(3), 408-446.
Tibi, A., & Savage-Smith, E. (2010). Abū al-Faraj ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Hindū. The Key to Medicine and a Guide for Students (Reading: Garnet Publishing, 2010), 52-54.
Turner, B. S. (2009). Can we live forever?: A sociological and moral inquiry. Anthem Press.
Valles, S. (2020). Philosophy of biomedicine.
Verdaguer, E., Junyent, F., Folch, J., Beas-Zarate, C., Auladell, C., Pallas, M., & Camins, A. (2012). Aging biology: a new frontier for drug discovery. Expert Opinion on Drug Discovery, 7(3), 217-229.
Vijg, J., & De Grey, A. D. (2014). Innovating aging: promises and pitfalls on the road to life extension. Gerontology, 60(4), 373-380.
Warby, P. (2021). A Critical Enquiry into the Metaphysics for Mind Uploading University of Pretoria (South Africa)].
Yu, J., Li, T., & Zhu, J. (2023). Gene therapy strategies targeting aging-related diseases. Aging and disease, 14(2), 398.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Aasim I. Padela, Raudah Yunus
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC-BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) after publication, while providing bibliographic details that credit JEET (See The Effect of Open Access).
How to Cite
