Millions long for immortality
who do not know what to do with themselves
on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
-- Susan Ertz --
You can believe in God without believing in immortality,
but it is hard to see how anyone can believe in immortality
and not believe in God.
-- Ernest Dimnet --
In the year 2058 Jamie McAllister, a ninety-year-old billionaire decided he wanted to become young again, and he was willing to do anything to achieve this. So he decided to conduct an experiment that no one seriously considered doing. He instructed his researchers to perform Total Cell Replacement Therapy on him.
All the newspapers had articles on him and his controversial experiment. Everyone wanted to know how he did it, and why anyone would possibly want to do it. What follows is an account of what happened.
How does Total Cell Replacement Therapy work? The first thing you need to do is to incubate a fertilized egg for five days. Jamie’s staff screened thousands of egg and sperm donors. They looked for candidates with the best qualities, such as beauty, health and intelligence, among other things. The winning donors received a million dollars, with the assurance that only the best would come to their life essence.
At the beginning of the experiment, the researchers suggested they use Jamie’s genetic material. They soon discarded this idea as a waste of time. Research at the turn of the twenty-first century showed that cloning does not regenerate DNA.
After five days of incubation, the fertilized egg turned into a ball containing millions of cells. The researchers then added a chemical that separated all these stem cells.
In the meantime, Jamie had been taking a slew of drugs to prepare his body for the rejuvenation process. These drugs destroyed all the telomeres in the cells of Jamie’s body.
If left in this state, Jamie would be dead in a few months, as his DNA unraveled and his cells disintegrated.
At the same time, the drugs forever destroyed his immune system. Because of this, Jamie had to stay in a sterile environment for the first nine months of the experiment. These drugs also destroyed the ability of Jamie’s brain cells to regenerate. This meant that all his brain cells would be dead in a matter of years, even if his body were intact. From now on, there was no turning back.
Jamie’s staff washed out all the preparation drugs from Jamie’s body. They then injected the stem cells into Jamie’s blood stream. At the same time, the staff injected Jamie with a chemical cocktail. This was to help in the next phase of the experiment and continued for the first several years of the experiment.
Once all the preparation drugs were washed out of Jamie’s body, the stem cells were injected into the blood stream of Jamie. At the same time, Jamie was injected with a chemical cocktail. This was to help in the next phase of the experiment and continued for the first several years of the experiment.
It might be interesting to note that this phase of the experiment was done in secret in international waters to prevent any government from interfering.
In the beginning of the experiment, there was no apparent change. However, at the microscopic level, things were happening. The stem cells were busy multiplying and spreading throughout Jamie’s body, like a cancer. Jamie’s old cells were no match for the new stem cells. The new cells were replacing old at an incredible rate.
This process was affecting Jamie’s brain, but at a slower speed. New brain cells were forming as the old brain cells were dying. Because of this, old connections were being lost while new ones were forming. Jamie’s memories were in danger of being lost.
To counter this, Jamie started an intensive course of mental training and remembering. The old saying “Use it or lose it” was very appropriate here. Jamie made a list of all the skills he wanted to keep and practiced them continuously. This forced the new neurons to create the appropriate connections needed to save important memories and skills. (Who ever said getting young was easy?)
Jamie was also exercising regularly and eating healthy foods. This was essential for proper regeneration.
After a couple of months, changes started becoming visible. Jamie’s skin started looking younger. The wrinkles were disappearing. Jamie’s mind was becoming sharper. Jamie was dropping years faster than anyone could possibly imagine.
However, the regeneration process did not go as many people expected it to go. In all his previous life, Jamie never looked the way he was looking now. Previously, he had black hair, but now his hair was blond. His skin color had lightened from almost total black to a pale color. His bone structure had changed too. Before, he was a heavyset man, while now his features were delicate. What was more, he had shrunk. Where, before he was 6’2”, now he was 5’4”.
Maybe the most disturbing changes that took place to his body were that things were growing that people don’t normally find in a grown man’s body. Also, those things that we normally find there were disappearing at an alarming rate. It was too late to do anything. Stopping the experiment would mean Jamie’s death.
Jamie’s personality was changing too. His likes and dislikes were different. His interests were changing. The way he dealt with people was different.
The New Jamie
Ten years have since passed and Jamie is in excellent health. New cells have replaced almost all of Jamie’s old body and brain cells. Jamie now looked and acted like just like any healthy twenty-year old. But a twenty-year old what?
From a purely biological point of view, Jamie had become a perfectly healthy, intelligent, attractive young – woman.
Jamie knew the risks when the experiment started. Jamie’s staff screened the sperm, but errors do happen. By the time they found the error, it was too late. They had run out of time. The staff had suggested that they fertilize multiple eggs to prevent such errors, but Jamie felt that to be immoral.
So the question arises: What happened?
Ethics
Let’s deal with the ethics of using stem cells in this unorthodox manner first.
People have been opposing the use of stem cells since the beginning of the twenty-first century. The reason was that when you join an egg and sperm together, you create a new organism. By using the stem cells to replace worn out cells, you deprive the new organism from full expression.
If the fertilized egg Jamie used developed in the usual way, it would have created a child, and then eventually a healthy young woman. This is where Jamie’s experiment differs from the normal use of stem cells. Jamie allowed the fertilized egg to fulfill its potential, which is why the end product was a healthy young woman.
From a purely biological point of view, we could say that Jamie died in the experiment. After all, the only things that remained of Jamie were some selected memories, skills and some cells old cells that would eventually die.
From one point of view, it could be said that Jamie the man gave his life so that Jamie the woman would be born with all the tools needed to succeed in life. The only issue is that Jamie the woman never had a traditional childhood. Can you imagine being born as an adult with all the skills, talents and abilities needed to succeed in life as well as the partial memories of another person, but without any childhood memories? Some would say not having a childhood is a blessing. There is no doubt that this will generate debate for years to come.
To Be Or Not To Be
Many people have accused Jamie of being crazy for carrying out the experiment. Almost a hundred years ago, doctors gave a dark skinned man a chance of lightening his skin. The reason is not important. He refused to undertake the operation. The man refused the offer because he considered it to be too much like death. If changing just your skin color is like death to some people, can you imagine changing not just your skin color, but also your personality, your height and your appearance, not to mention your sex?
No matter how the verdict comes in about using whole fertilized cells, the facts remain that very few people will ever try to do what Jamie did. As mentioned above, it is too much like death to most people. For another thing, advances in medicine have allowed most people to live to at least 120. Some people even envision a time when the DNA of an adult can be revitalized, allowing for true regeneration. So why did Jamie choose to conduct such an unorthodox experiment?
Is the old man alive with a new body, or did he die when his cells were replaced? Who or what is this new creature that calls itself Jamie?
I Think Therefore I Am, I Think
When asked why anyone would perform such a crazy experiment, Jamie responds in these words.
“I have noticed something unusual about myself for as long as I can remember. I noticed that I exist. I am aware of my own existence. That has been the only constant in my life, as I grew up and my body changed and my interests changed and my personality matured.
“Weather I am happy, sad, angry, sleepy or anything else, the only constant in my life has been the awareness of my existence.
“When I became a teenager, I found a book on Raga Yoga. One of the exercises given helps show that a person’s true self is immortal. The exercise goes like this. You are to imagine yourself as being dead. You could imagine yourself as being blown up or being shot in the head or being poisoned. What you end up with is a dead body. Who is doing the observing? You are. If you think about it enough, you will realize that you cannot imagine yourself as being dead. You can only imagine your body as being lifeless, but you are still alive doing the watching.
“Another exercise shows you that you are not your body, mind, or anything else you can examine. If you could examine it, then who is doing the examining? You are. Truly examining yourself is like pulling yourself up by your own shoelaces. It’s impossible.
“I am not the sum of my emotions because even though my emotions change, the ‘I’ in me is constant.
“I am not the sum of my thoughts because my thoughts come and go, and yet I still am.
“I am not my body because by body is constantly changing and yet I still am. Except for my brain cells, almost all my cells get replaced on a continuous basis. Are my brain cells ‘I’? That is a possibility since they have existed ever since my birth. However, the material making up my brain cells are constantly being replaced and renewed and still I am. Also, new brain cells are born throughout life and brain cells do die. Therefore, I cannot be my brain cells. Can I be the structure created by the interconnections of all the brain cells? That is a possibility. However, how do you explain the fact that the connections are constantly changing and growing and yet what I consider my true self remains the same? There is continuity and constancy in my perception of my own existence, even when everything else changes.
“If I am not the physical structure of my body, then what am I? Am I independent of my body? I am certain of it and yet I am unwilling to find out.
“The anti-aging regimes currently available cannot achieve true regeneration and I can’t possibly wait for possibly hundreds of years for true regeneration to be achieved.
“It doesn’t matter that new body cells will replace my old body cells. This happens all the time. It does not matter that new brain cells will replace my old brain cells. There is no real difference between human brain cells. Also, brain cells are forming all through our lives. What really matters is the interconnections between neurons. Connections are not important to your sense of self. Everyone gain connections as they grow. Connections are even lost with age and accidents. People have been using stem cells to replace worn out neurons for years now. I do not know their experiences but I am certain their sense of self never broke.
“René Descartes said, ‘I think, therefore I am’. In other words, the fact that I am aware of my own existence is proof that I exist. If I did not exist, there would be no one to do the observing. Do we have souls? Author Piers Anthony gives a logical proof that we do. In his book ‘A Spell for Chameleon’, a creature asked the Good Magician if he had a soul. The Good Magician said that only those who have souls are interested in such questions.
“There is no logical reason why we should be interested in souls. It does not add anything to our lives. It does not provide an advantage. There are many people who spend their entire lives not asking these questions. The Zoë tribe of the Amazon doesn’t seem to have religion. They all seem to do fine without thinking about such questions. In fact, the Zoë tribe seems to be composed of the emotionally healthiest group of people I know about.
“So why are people so fired up about the question of souls and spirits? We are interested because we do have souls. The statement, ‘Only those who have souls are interested in the question’, is proof of it. That is a fundamental truth that needs a great deal of thought to truly understand.
“So you see; total cell replacement does not replace the important thing in a person, which is the person. It is not death. That is why I did what I did. Okay, so what happened to me was a little disturbing to say the least, but isn’t that what life is all about?
“Am I a murderer because I used a fertilized egg in this manner? I don’t think so. The fertilized egg eventually achieved full expression, which was its original destiny. The difference is that the potential person did not have a normal childhood. Instead, it was born as an adult with all the memories of an adult. Is not having a normal childhood a bad thing? I don’t think so, because I am that person everyone thinks was deprived and I am perfectly content the way everything went.
“And new, if you will excuse, I have a hot date with a hunk and I have no idea what to wear.”
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