Becoming Immortal: Combining Cloning and Stem-Cell Therapy

Contents

Contents Preface ix Prologue xi 1 Quo Vadis? 1 Why Become Immortal? 3 Has Life Changed? 4 “Hello, Dolly!” and Salutations to Stem Cells 9 Why We Are Not Immortal Or What Is Life Anyway? 17 Achieving Immortality through Biotechnology 36 2 Why Immortality Cannot Evolve 45 Where Does Longevity Come From, and Why Has Evolution Made Us Mortal Rather than Immortal? 46 What Is an Evolutionary View of Longevity, And Why Are the Prospects so Bleak for Achieving Immortality through Evolution? 65 Afterword: Immortality Triumphant! 79 3 Why Immortality Cannot Develop 81 Development’s “Why, Where, What, When, How, and Why?” 83 Development According to Embryologists and Developmental Biologists 111 Conclusions 122 4 Life’s Fundamental Feature: Devolution 125 Getting Down to Basics: Life Begins 126 An Introduction to Devolution 132 The Devolution of Eucarya 135 The Devolution of Sex 141 The Devolution of Metazoa 146 The Devolution of Life Histories 151 The Devolution of Death 155 Conclusions 161 viii CONTENTS 5 Making Immortals: From Blastocyst to Generator 165 Taking Another Look at Cloning 166 Taking Another Look at Stem Cells 176 Making Immortals 186 Making Generators 187 Epilogue: Reprise and Prediction 195 Prospects for Immortalization 196 Adjustments Required by Immortalization 202 At What Cost 207 Endnotes 209 Glossary 241 Bibliography 263 Index 293 ...