The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic Studies

Answers

• Q15TRANSCENDENCE

  Should extending human life indefinitely be a goal of technical progress?

  Qualified. lengthen, not endless. Metchnikoff defines orthobiosis as prolonged active, healthy old age followed by satiety of life and a wish for death, expressly distinguishing this ideal from simple prolongation.

  The methods which have been successful in the case of plants and animals must be much modified for application to the human race. In the case of human beings the selection and cross-breeding which were imposed upon rye and plum trees are not possible, but, at the same time, the ideal of human nature, towards which mankind ought to press, may be formed. In our opinion this ideal is orthobiosis, that is to say, the development of the human life so that it passes through a long period of old age in active and vigorous health, leading to the final period in which there shall be present a sense of satiety of life, and a wish for death. I do not think that the ideal should be that of Herbert Spencer, a simple prolongation of human life. When the instinct of death comes at a not very late period of life, there would be no inconvenience in shortening the life, if death did not come soon after the appearance of the instinct. Probably this would be the only case where suicide was justified in the conception of orthobiosis.

  English edition 1907, Putnam; Gutenberg #51521. French title Essais optimistes (1907) from memory, not verified. Argument summary from general knowledge.