A Response to Walter Glannon

Walter Glannon has written a stimulating and engaging paper on a subject of increasing importance. The nub of the argument is that an extension of our biological lives would not entail a corresponding extension of our psychological lives and could, beyond a certain point, result in the loss of personal identity. Glannon produces some philosophical and some scientific arguments in support of this claim and concludes that longer life spans would be undesirable. In responding I should declare two sorts of interests. The first is that I have written about immortality myself, and the second is that like Jonathan Glover I would (as of now) be quite happy to sample a few million years and see how it goes.