Becoming Immortal

Stanley Shostak is Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of Embryology: An Introduction to Developmental Biology; Death of Life: The Legacy of Molecular Biology; and Evolution of Sameness and Difference: Perspectives on the Human Genome Project.

• PrefacePrologue 1. Quo Vadis? Why Become Immortal?Has Life Changed?"Hello, Dolly!" and Salutations to Stem CellsWhy We Are Not Immortal Or What Is Life Anyway?Achieving Immortality through Biotechnology 2. Why Immortality Cannot Evolve 45 Where Does Longevity Come From, and Why Has Evolution Made Us Mortal Rather than Immortal?What Is an Evolutionary View of Longevity, And Why Are the Prospects so Bleak for Achieving Immortality through Evolution?Afterword: Immortality Triumphant! 3. Why Immortality Cannot Develop Development's "Why, Where, What, When, How, and Why?"Development According to Embryologists and Developmental BiologistsConclusions 4. Life's Fundamental Feature: Devolution Getting Down to Basics: Life BeginsAn Introduction to DevolutionThe Devolution of EucaryaThe Devolution of SexThe Devolution of MetazoaThe Devolution of Life HistoriesThe Devolution of DeathConclusions 5 Making Immortals: From Blastocyst to Generator Taking Another Look at CloningTaking Another Look at Stem CellsMaking ImmortalsMaking GeneratorsEpilogue: Reprise and PredictionProspects for ImmortalizationAdjustments Required by ImmortalizationAt What Cost EndnotesGlossaryBibliographyIndex

"…provides an interesting context for considering a wide range of moral and policy issues that have been raised in previous debates on biomedical technologies." — Science"This is a bold and imaginative attempt to open up discussion on several levels—biological and ethical—about a possible development in human evolution, notably, that of our becoming immortal. Shostak lucidly and instructively explains why it is that complex cellular life has evolved in a mortal fashion and how developments in biotechnology and increases in our understanding of life will, at some point in the future, enable us to create immortal human beings." — Keith Ansell-Pearson, University of Warwick"The author has a very interesting and compelling argument for immortality, whereby the provocative implication of this book is that, far from being a pipe-dream, human immortality is a biological possibility. It's a very informative presentation of the pertinent biology and history of biology, with some reference to the larger ethical and political implications of the subject." — Robert M. Johnson, Castleton College