Age-Related Diseases: A Case Study

Cynthia Kenyon’s plan to reverse aging in humans and stimulate genes that cause age related diseases, was the medical advancement that I was able to research and determine according to my ethics whether or not or not I would support this experiment. A big breakthrough for Kenyon, was when she found out that there was a universal hormonal control for aging in Caenorhabditis elegans, in other words, small roundworms. This hormonal control gene, daf-2, activates receptors that are sensitive to two hormones, insulin and a growth hormone called IGF-1. Cynthia revised a plan to disable this daf-2 gene which then caused double the lifespan in these roundworms and healthier movements at the old age. She also discovered that carbohydrate intake has an effect on genes by reducing insulin production and boosting repair and renovation activities. Although, she has not found the molecules responsible for the onset of age-related diseases in people, she hopes to one day create a drug that will slow down this process and eliminate age diseases altogether, with the final goal being that humans one day will be able to live …show more content…
In order for me to call this advancement ethical I would need it to at least a 20 or higher. Legally and politically I scored this experiment low, because I believed that the only information that was present was the positive enhancements they have discovered and Kenyon talking about her optimist views on a drug that could one day have the power to reverse aging and terminate age related diseases. Religiously, also scored low for me because this medical advancement only benefits people's wants rather than needs. Living forever in a place that has sin, sorrow, and suffering like this earth has, would be like living in eternal hell. God is in complete control over our lifespan and has the power to determine the age one is supposed to live