R: Avoid Death

Death is the great human fascination. Inspiring novels, fantasy, film, art, philosophy, and religion, grappling with death leads to common expressions of our humanity and poses questions about the very essence of our existence on earth. Temporal limits restrain us to single lifetimes, forcing us to constrain our hope for the future eternity or the fleeting present. But the modern era offers unprecedented tools for the destruction of the human person and the radical extension of life. Technology grows exponentially and we combine medicine and machine, policy and pills, to gain further control over the conception and death of every individual in society. As transhumanism, euthanasia, and cryonics, increasingly enter the cultural narrative of the twenty-first century, we must attempt to reconcile or reject them with considerations of history, ethics, religion, the purpose of life, and what it means to be truly human. 

Do we freeze our heads, bottle our genes, and plug into machines? Or do we give in to the grave, foregoing advances in lifesaving technology altogether? Is the struggle against the inevitable end futile or the very essence of the human existence? When should we live, when should we die, and who should decide?