Facing Death or Defy It

Photo by Matthew Henry from Burst 

When we were children, we somehow felt that everyone we met was going to be there with you forever. Our parents, our grandparents, our uncles and aunts, cousins and even friends. There was no stopping us from believing that they could live forever because we did not have this idea of old age and death yet. To us, life is eternal, that is why we were so care-free and ready to face life. That is how amazing life is, somehow. We knew people get older. People celebrate birthdays, and somehow it is such a happy occasion where family and friends gather to celebrate someone turning a year older. We knew that the numbers of a person's age will increase. We knew that after we learned how to count. Then we figured out that people get hurt when we see someone fall down hard. There was pain. After that, we learned about getting sick. Our mother's or father's would take us to a clinic or a hospital. We felt weak. When do we learn about death? When we attend our first funeral, or when someone tells us that the person has gone and is never coming back. We sense the feeling of loss. Like losing a friend and losing a toy. We felt sad because other people were crying. And we feel sad as well. We lose many things in life, but when we finally know what it feels like losing a life, then we understand loss.

Death and loss is something we rarely talk about openly. It makes us feel sad or afraid. First of all, what makes us feel afraid? We know that after death the body decays and that souls of the dead cease to exist in our world. But where do they go? For different religions, we have different theories to that. Heaven, Hell, Reincarnation, the ghost dimension. Anyhow, the person's soul is not there anymore. The truth is, we do not know what lies beyond life and what is ahead of us after we die. In religion, of course there is an explanation. I think for most of us, there is a comfort to knowing that we have a destination after we die. But I do think that people are afraid of death because we ultimately do not know what is going to happen to our selves when we die, we do not understand it. We know that we are going to face it one day, that makes it even scarier. Like riding a roller-coaster ride and knowing you are going to take that big plunge, even if you do not want to.

All of us know that we are going to die someday, and for most of us, we are unconsciously afraid of that reality. We may prepare for it, we may be strong enough to admit that you are ready to die but until you have reached the very edge of life, which separates living and not living, you are afraid. That is also what makes humans so 'special', we have the strong conscious desire to keep on breathing.

There are many causes to death such as murder, suicide, accidents, bad health and diseases. But what I finally come to understand what causes death, it is life. We live to die. It is a circle. There is no way else. We can't live forever (although people are continuously finding ways to defy aging). It is up to each and everyone of us, to understand what is death. Many would say, we live to enjoy our days being alive; we live to help others; we live to achieve our dreams; we live for our family; we live to be thankful for the life God gave us. Yes, it can be all of that. Simply, we are born, we grow up, we grow old (hopefully we grow older) and then we die. It is a dark reality we have to face.

So the question that everyone should ponder on is: "Should we defy aging or death?"

According to The Guardian, Google announced the creation of Calico, short for the California Life Company in 2013. Calico's mission is to reverse engineer the biology that controls lifespan and devise interventions that enable people to lead longer and healthier lives. According to The Guardian, there is much speculation and mystery as to what the biotech company is really doing but they seem to be looking in part to develop age-defying drugs. Basically, the drugs are supposed to make us age much slower.

Besides, there is already some proof that a diabetes drug called metformin can extend the life of animals. So it may be the world's first anti-ageing drug if the effects seen in those animals are replicated in human test subjects. The tests on humans is supposed to start this year. Over our lifetime, many cells have to divide to keep our body functioning correctly. The more times cells divide, the higher chances of errors which may occur in the process. And as more errors occur, the body will slowly be unable to fix those errors. That drug does stop aging completely but it slows down the process by increasing the oxygen molecules released into a cell which is vital in the cell division that occurs in our bodies. And may I mention that this drug costs about RM0.61 (10 pence British sterling) a day? A month it costs about RM19.

Everyone wants to live longer and everyone thinks that there isn't enough time. So when people see a chance to extend the lifespan of humans, most people would jump on that opportunity. If these scientists are successful, what I foresee is that our Earth would be overpopulated as the average human life is extended to well beyond 120 years. There would be a large increase of relatively healthy older people competing with the younger generation for resources and space. The human race will be consuming more and creating more waste. As of 2015, our human population was at 7.3 billion. According to WHO (World Health Organization), the average life expectancy worldwide is approximately 71 years as of year 2013. Imagine what our population would be like 30 years down the road if we extend the human lifespan. Of course, bio-technologies like these can give us the opportunity to lead healthier and more fulfilling lives. But maybe people should consider the effects it would have on the environment. Are we ready to face a spike in human population? How many people can Earth support? Maybe we should find solutions to social problems and environmental issues first before extending human lifespan.

My grandfather was 75 years old when he took his last hard breath. He died of pneumonia which was caused by his 4th stage brain cancer. The intelligent, witty and fast-talker man I once knew became speech impaired and finally he couldn't walk. Slowly, all his best traits were taken away.

In the last months of his life, he was bed-ridden and he couldn't communicate with any one of us at home. He could only blink his eyes and move his fingers a bit. I think that was the most heart-breaking moment of my life so far. To see someone I looked up to and love so much, suffering something my family or his friends didn't expect he would was painful to me. But I could not even imagine his own pain he felt. I still remember the day, I visited him in the hospital when he went to get his CT scan, he was sitting in the wheelchair, smiling. I never saw him in a wheelchair and I immediately teared up. He looked at me and just told me, more like a command, "Don't cry, you must be strong". I did not want to face it at first. Even until now, I feel like he did not get the chance to see my family celebrate more birthdays, see me get my first job, treat him with the money I earn from my first job, see me get married and see me have my first child. There are many things I feel that he has yet to experience but that is not for me to judge. He loved and and he was loved.

We all have loss someone we love very dearly. And for some of us, it is harder because it becomes so much more than just death of a loved one (financial problems, family feuds, depression). There is no way to describe death beyond the funerals and mourning. What is beyond death, is a territory we can only wait to experience ourselves.

Death is part of life, no matter how it happens. It may be a good thing to find the cure to many diseases in this world we live in. No more pain and no more suffering. But what if pain and suffering is what makes us human? What drives us to achieve great things? Our struggle for survival is what made us who we are today. What happens if we remove pain and suffering from humans? What happens if we know that there is something out there that can extend our lifespan? We do not have to worry about living anymore. What if that happens? That is up to us to decide.

'Til the next post. Thanks for reading.

MY.

References 

Corbyn Z. (2015). The Guardian. Live for ever: Scientists say they’ll soon extend life ‘well beyond 120’. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jan/11/-sp-live-forever-extend-life-calico-google-longevity

Knapton S. (2015). The Telegraph. World’s first anti-ageing drug could see humans live to 120. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12017112/Worlds-first-anti-ageing-drug-could-see-humans-live-to-120.html