The document is a student essay on the achievability of immortality. It begins by defining immortality and discussing historical perceptions. The essay then considers immortality from the perspectives of society, biology, and religion. It argues that while immortality seems distant now, advances in technology may someday make it possible, but it currently is not achievable and would not be beneficial due to issues like overpopulation and limited resources. The essay concludes that despite humanity's desire to live forever, immortality is not currently attainable or advantageous based on the perspectives discussed.

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Spring 2016 Quest for Immortality Name: Serra
ENG 102-33 Lastname: Koz
DATE: 14.03.2016 ID number: ---
ESSAY 1 – FINAL To: Özge EZİCİ – ÇETİN
ESSAY QUESTION
Considering the different aspects of immortality that were discussed, to what
extent do you think that it may be achievable?
NOTE: Please print this template out, bring it to class on the essay writing day and write your
essay here.
TASK PROMPT
Requirements:
1. Download the required essay template on Moodle (both for draft and the final) and
write/type your essay on it. Remember to check the page layout before you print the
digital version to avoid formatting problems and keep the original formatting.
2. Write 850 – 1,000 words, at least 3 developmental (body) paragraphs in addition to the
introduction and the conclusion.
3. In your introduction, make sure that you include the definition of immortality, give
decent background information around different aspects/historical perceptions of it
and state your thesis statement which answers the essay question clearly.
4. Write a counter argument paragraph as one of the body paragraphs with proper
refutation in the same or the following body paragraph.
5. Use at least 3 sources from the course materials, and at least 1 extra source that you
find on your own.

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6. Upload your extra source to Moodle.
7. Use APA in-text and end-of-text (references) citation.
8. Use times new roman, 12 pt, and double space your work (for the final version).
9. Pay attention to the requirements specified in the ‘Writing Criteria’ to familiarize
yourself with the areas you are evaluated on.
10. Improve your essay by considering your instructor’s written feedback, the tutorial
guidance as well as having a look at the ‘Essay revision’ document that was covered in
class and your own ways of improvement (for the final version).
11. For essay 1 final submission, print out ‘Essay Criteria’ on Moodle and submit it along
with your essay 1 final.
Task completion and deadlines:
1. Produce a full draft for the essay with introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion and
references. Remember that incomplete drafts will not be accepted. Check the ‘outline’
document that was covered in class to remember what kind of information you have to
include in each part in your essay.
2. If you fail to write the draft of the essay without a medical report, you cannot write the
essay final and you will receive 0 (zero) for your essay task.
3. If you lose your first draft with the teacher’s feedback, you will lose 50% of your
essay final grade.
4. If you submit your digital (Moodle Turnitin) or hard copy version of your final essay
late, you will lose 1 point (out of 22) for each day, your essay will not be accepted
after 3 days and you will receive 0 (zero) for your essay task.

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ESSAY
According to the “Immortality” (2014) the definition of immortality described as “in
philosophy and religion, the continuity of human spiritual existence after the death of the
body” whereas physical immortality is the continuity of human body existence. Since the
beginning of humankind, people have been trying to find a cure for immortality. According to
“Philosopher’s Stone” (2016) the primitive human beings focused on Philosopher’s Stone and
the Elixir of Life where today’s scientists trying to find a genetic code for immortality by
observing hydra that mention in “Mortality patterns suggest lack of senescence in hydra”
(Martı́nez, 1998, p.217) and planaria that mention in “Planarian stem cells: a simple paradigm
for regeneration.” (Aboobaker, 2011, p.304). Moreover, as Bhullar and Hubbard suggest that
“a number of small molecules with the ability to extend the lifespan of multiple organisms
have recently been discovered” (2015, p.1209). According to text “Lifespan and healthspan
extension by resveratrol” one of those molecules is resveratrol and it might be beneficial in
terms of prolonging lifespan of individuals. (Bhullar&Hubbard, 2015, p.1209) On the other
hand, Indian religions believed in reincarnation rather than after life according to “The
mystery of reincarnation” (Nagaraj et al., 2013, p.173). Thus, people are divided into two
sides but they have not reached a real consensus whether immortality is achievable or will be
achieved in near future. Fundamentally, immortality cannot be achievable in terms of benefits
of society, biological aspect and perspective of religion for today.
The first thing that has to be considered is the negative aspects of immortality for
society such as overpopulation and diminishing the individual’s quality of life. Today’s
population is already at a remarkable rate because of the relation between birth and death. No
matter how many years does an individual live, humankind is doomed to die and have to die.
According to Bailey in the text “Eternal youth for all! Why I want to live forever and you
should too” “… radically increased longevity lead to overpopulation. In a 2013 Article for the

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Public Policy and Aging Report, Olshansky uses realistic trend data to calculate that if
everyone became immortal tomorrow, world population would take 80 years to double”
(2015). As the author emphasizes overpopulation is one of the most important drawbacks of
immortality. On the other hand, the quality of life will be rapidly diminished. Although the
world has lots of uncharted sources and treasures, it has limited resources. Natural sources is
in jeopardy because of overpopulation even today. Furthermore, the economy of a society is
influenced by overpopulation which means that the quality of life is directly affected by well-
being of a society. That’s why immortality causes tremendous results for both individuals and
society. As Farrant mentioned in Longevity and the Good Life, limited resources on earth
cannot support immortal society (2010, p.74) Bailey (2015) suggest that the cure for
expanding life is too expensive. As the authors say that immortality gives rise to not only
economic problems for individuals and society but also decrease the amount of resources.
Basically, immortality brings many drawbacks for society like overpopulation and individuals
in the society is influenced by this situation and their life quality obviously will be decrease.
The second thing that must consider is the biological aspect of the human body since
human body does not have capacity to cease senescence and today’s technology is not
improved a lot for finding a real cure for immortality. Some living creatures such as hydra and
planeria have the capability of constant renewal of their body (Martinez, 1998, p.217) and the
capacity for constant renewal (Martinez, 1998, p.218). Unfortunately, human body is not like
hydra as humans cannot renew themselves. Unless human body has a capacity for constant
renewal in itself, it is not possible for talking about immortality in human in a biological
aspect. Moreover, thanks to the advanced technology, humankind can use some treatment to
extend their life but it is not possible to reach immortality by those treatments. Some
experiments have been done on mice but there is no permission for human to experiment on it
(Bailey, 2015). That is why scientists cannot ensure that immortality treatment will be

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beneficial for human species. However, some treatments might prolong life span as Bhullar
and Hubbard states that “a number of dietary and pharmacological interventions have recently
been described that can extend lifespan and prevent age-related diseases, bolstering hope that
it may one day be possible to extend human lifespan” (2015, p.1209). So, immortality for
humans in a biological perspective is only an assumption. Shortly, human beings do not have
any chance to live forever in biological way since they do not have the capacity to renew their
cells limitlessly and technological developments in medicine do not provide any cure for
immortality, but maybe in the future.
The last point that has to be emphasized and discussed is the religious aspect of
immortality. From the time humans recognized that religion plays a significant role in their
life, they chose to believe religions or chose to not believe but no matter which religion they
believe or not, death is the reality of the cruel world. Nevertheless, immortality means
continuation of soul, even after death. That’s why some religions believe the notion of
afterlife (death) whereas Abrahamic religions believe that reincarnation is a part of life as the
soul never dies (Nagaraj, 2013, p.172). The situation makes a contradiction among believes
since most of them believe their soul live forever which means immortality can be achievable
in terms of the life of soul in spite of the death body. However, people cannot ensure the soul
lives forever or not since scientists cannot observe it. Thus, uncertainty of what the soul will
do after death provide an environment for people to discuss is immortality real or not in terms
of religious perspective.
Consequently, the idea of immortality is discussed in terms of benefits of society,
biological and religious perspective in preceding paragraphs. Although people desire to live
forever, immortality is not reachable with regards to biological aspect in today’s world.
Reaching immortal society is not beneficial for society itself since it causes overpopulation
and economic collapse for countries. Despite the fact that scientist cannot able to prove it, it is

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not possible to talk about real immortal or mortal life for the soul. Basically, it is not possible
to live forever because of the biological aspect and religious perspective and cannot be
beneficial for society. Since all the ideas discussed so far, immortality seems quite distant
away but it might be possible in one day in the future with the help of advanced technology.

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References
Aboobaker, A. A. (2011). Planarian stem cells: a simple paradigm for regeneration. Trends in
cell biology, 21(5), 304-311.
Bailey, R. (2015). Eternal youth for all! Why I want to live forever and you should
too. Reason Magazine, (10). 22.
Bhullar, K. S., & Hubbard, B. P. (2015). Lifespan and healthspan extension by
resveratrol. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Molecular Basis of
Disease, 1852(6), 1209-1218.
Immortality. (2014). Encyclopædia Britannica,
Martı́nez, D. E. (1998). Mortality patterns suggest lack of senescence in hydra. Experimental
gerontology, 33(3), 217-225.
Nagaraj, A. K. M., Nanjegowda, R. B., & Purushothama, S. M. (2013). The mystery of
reincarnation. Indian journal of psychiatry, 55(Suppl 2), S171.
Philosopher's stone. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from
http://global.britannica.com/topic/philosophers-stone