Life-extension technology will disproportionately serve the wealthy

Evidence

In 2004 de Grey declared that the war on aging will vastly accelerate when longevity research gets to the point where mice live long enough for the public to recognize the prospects for human life extension. Viable life extension therapies will then be available to the public, “albeit at a price that only the relatively wealthy can afford,” he predicted. Dr. de Grey is on the money, of course; those with significant financial resources have more options than most when it comes to enjoying the fruits of such science. Not only can they pay for the very best in medical care, they can also avail themselves of technologies that promise to return them from the dead. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 382

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes class-stratification themes in the reader’s library, e.g. The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Things Fall Apart on inequality.