At the historic Chautauqua Institution last summer, Bioethics expert Art Caplan gave a lecture about living longer, looking better and why that is permissible from a moral perspective. His talk included many interesting references to plastic surgery and anti-aging.
In the first few minutes of his speech, Caplan recalls a story about a woman who had received harsh criticism for getting a facelift. A younger female counterpart said of her, “that’s terrible, you should simply accept the changes [of aging] as they come.” The story served as a model example of a common attitude present in many people today; a “puritanical” view of anti-aging and surgical enhancement.
In his broad philosophical argument, Caplan rejects the puritanical view and presents many reasons why we should use medical technology to pursue new discoveries in the science of stem cells. He suggest that if we push for adequate funding and defeat the misguided morality of the “new puritans”, it may be possible for us to achieve methods of whole-body anti aging, through the regenerative capabilities of stem cells.
The entire lecture can be found here on Minnesota Public Radio.
