Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension

  • Stephen Hall
Houghton Mifflin: 2003. 440 pp. $25

One can imagine an alchemist some 2,000 years ago weaving a tale for the investors and politicians of his day. They cling to every word as he tells them how the properties of immortality thought to exist for gold could be transferred to humans by ingesting minute quantities of the rare metal. According to the alchemist, 'science' is only 10–20 years away from a breakthrough that would give rise to immortality for those willing to invest. All that is needed is money and time to figure out the recipe.

Such merchants of immortality have been spinning their tale since time immemorial. So it is not surprising that in today's rapidly ageing society, where medical technology can manufacture survival time, there is an abundance of scientists and longevity salesmen (on occasion they are one and the same) who seek lucre from the promise of a longer and healthier life. Are the modern immortality salesmen on the trail of the genuine fountain of youth, or are contemporary investors and consumers of the anti-ageing industry being duped, like countless before them? In Merchants of Immortality, Stephen Hall provides the answer.

Hall begins with an account of Leonard Hayflick's discovery that some cells have a limited capacity to replicate. The irony is that Hayflick, who is the father of biogerontology, is also the most ardent voice of authority against the immortalists, yet his view on the topic is barely mentioned. Instead Hall goes into detail about Hayflick's battle with the government over a human cell line he developed that was later used to produce life-saving vaccines.

The one scientist who appears repeatedly throughout the book as the most ardent merchant of immortality is Michael West, the budding priest turned scientist and entrepreneur who wrote about the longevity-enhancing effects of telomerase, cloning and embryonic stem cells. Hall takes issue with West's recipe for immortality, which has lured in a bevy of investors who were all too willing to have a financial stake in the fountain of youth.

Several chapters are devoted to similar tales of scientists-turned-entrepreneurs. They are mainly fascinating but sad stories of how money both corrupts and enhances modern science. But it is exactly this kind of entrepreneurship that, despite its potential to corrupt and the numerous roadblocks placed before science by politics and ignorance, has the potential to create a new field of regenerative medicine from recent developments regarding embryonic and adult stem cells.

It is often difficult for scientists to see the importance of their work and its relevance in a world where social norms and ethics can mesh and clash at the same time. There is no area of research where this dichotomy is more evident than studies of ageing. Hall pays what seems at first to be an inordinate amount of attention to the politics behind cloning and the use of embryonic and adult stem cells, but it soon becomes evident how debates about abortion and right-to-life issues have a direct influence on funding for research. He stresses that the politics of science in this case is not about the quest for immortality or the battle against ageing itself, but about efforts to combat disease.

Hall makes the case that the modern search for the fountain of youth, through the study of telomeres and embryonic and adult stem cells, is built on a house of cards. It is a mirage, he says, offering everlasting (or at least much longer) life, and has been placed on the horizon by a handful of scientists who seek wealth by making some exaggerated claims. What may realistically be on offer is not an extended lifespan but rather a healthier old age. Hall mentions scientists (including Hayflick) who have challenged the remarkable claims of the immortalists. But given the tales being spun and the pot of money awaiting a victor in the quest for a fountain of youth, it is no surprise that he has chosen to focus on the immortalists.

The field of ageing research should be grateful to Hall for applying his journalistic wizardry to the story of the modern quest for immortality. In this book he captures the drama, excitement, competition and rewards, both personal and professional, of scientific research. He treats the reader to a behind-the-scenes look at the jealousy, backstabbing, ambition and embellishment that comes with the territory of the modern scientific quest to halt or turn back the hands of time. In the end, Hall makes it clear that although today's immortalists may be whispering optimistically about their own immortality as they take their own last breath, there is a glimmer of hope that the true fountain of youth could be just over the horizon.

Merchants of Immortality is a remarkable book that is a must-read in the world of science and medicine. And lay readers will be interested in this revealing story about the odd mixture of science, politics and ethics, and how they all come together in the modern quest for immortality.