The Fountain of Youth

• Introduction ; PART I: THE PERENNIAL QUESTS FOR EXTENDED AND ETERNAL LIFE ; 1. The search for prolongevity: a continuous pursuit ; 2. The quest for immortality: visions and presentiments in science and literature ; 3. Decelerated ageing: should I drink from a Fountain of Youth? ; 4. A Jewish theology of death and the afterlife ; 5. In defence of immortality ; PART II: THE SCIENCE OF PROLONGEVITY ; 6. In search of the Holy Grail of senescence ; 7. The metabiology of life extension ; 8. Extending human longevity: a biological probability ; 9. Eat less, eat better, and live longer: does it work and is it worth it?: the role of diet in ageing and disease ; 10. Extending life: scientific prospects and political obstacles ; 11. An engineer's approach to developing real anti-ageing medicine ; PART III: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES ON RADICAL LIFE EXTENSION ; 12. An unnatural process: why it is not inherently wrong to seek a cure for ageing ; 13. Longevity, identity and moral character: a feminist approach ; 14. L'Chaim and its limits: why not immortality? ; 15. Anti-ageing research and the limits of medicine ; 16. The social and justice implications of extending the human life span ; 17. The prolonged old, the long-lived society and the politics of age ; Epilogue: extended life, eternal life: a Christian perspective

"This timely book, consisting of 17 chapters, a highly commendable annotated bibliography, and a review of selected primary articles, was assembled to review the history of the quest for extended and eternal life, the contemporary science of prolongevity, ethical and social perspectives on radical life extension, and the legitimacy of the antiaging movement . . . I would highly recommend this book as a most readable, provocative, and informative primer for allserious observers of biogerontology (including geriatricians) as they examine the progressive aging of the world's population - a trend that is certain to pose a central challenge to 21st-centurycivilization." --William R. Hazzard, M.D., in The New England Journal of Medicine"The editors tactfully and unobtrusively present scholarly apparatus and the language is sophisticated but clear, opening the views of scientists, religious thinkers, bioethicists, historians and social scientists to a broad range of readers." --Science & Theology News"This timely book, consisting of 17 chapters, a highly commendable annotated bibliography, and a review of selected primary articles, was assembled to review the history of the quest for extended and eternal life, the contemporary science of prolongevity, ethical and social perspectives on radical life extension, and the legitimacy of the antiaging movement . . . I would highly recommend this book as a most readable, provocative, and informative primer for allserious observers of biogerontology (including geriatricians) as they examine the progressive aging of the world's population - a trend that is certain to pose a central challenge to 21st-centurycivilization." --William R. Hazzard, M.D., in The New England Journal of Medicine"The editors tactfully and unobtrusively present scholarly apparatus and the language is sophisticated but clear, opening the views of scientists, religious thinkers, bioethicists, historians and social scientists to a broad range of readers." --Science & Theology News