Science and imagery in the ‘war on old age’.Paper present to RC-11, World Congress of Sociology, Durban 30th July 2006.

John A. Vincent

Department of Sociology, Amory Building, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4RU United Kingdom. JVincent@exeter.ac.uk

Abstract

This paper is a preliminary presentation of research in progress. This research builds on papers published in Sociology and in Vincent, Phillipson and Downs Futures of Old Agei. These papers are concerned with contemporary changes in the social construction of old age. The ‘biologisation’ of old age raises the prospect of the scientific understanding and the technical manipulation of ageing processes. This has spawned a number of controversies in the bio-gerontological community. One is the desire to distinguish genuine science of ageing from quack or bogus claims to reverse ageing and extend life formulated in quasi scientific or medical styles. Another is the plausibility and emphasis to be given to programmes to massively extend the human life span. These controversies provide the opportunity to observe the ways in which science of old age influences and is influenced by wider cultural phenomena and plays a critical part in the social devaluation of the final part of life.

The research has involved the textual study of the scientific output of bio-gerontology in popular science and specific academic journals and publications, attendance at bio-gerontological conferences and events, and following and documenting the two controversies Olshansky et al versus A4Mii and the reaction to Aubrey DeGray’s SENS (Scientifically Engineered Negligible Senescence) programmeiii. It is proposed to extend the research by exploration of anti-ageing practices encountered in fitness clinics, beauty clinics and biological laboratories. The ideas presented in the paper will centre around the language and imagery which are used to characterise ‘old age’ and which are located in the sources currently accessed.

Several professional groups present themselves as ‘waging war’ on old age. They construct old age as a naturalised self-evidently negative biological phenomenon, which must be attacked and defeated. These groups differ in the weapons with which to defeat ageing based on their differing claims to technical expertise and ability to control natural phenomena. There are those whose direct their control of the body to the removal of the signs of ageing, whose activities might be characterised as cosmetic. There are those whose objective is to control fundamental intra-cellular processes where the objective is to extend or break the limits to the human life span. There are those who equate old age with ill-health and identify themselves as warriors in a battle with disease. Examination of the language and symbolic practices of these groups can reveal the dynamics of the dominant cultural devaluation of old age and older people. The most prolific use of military metaphors comes from the first and third of these groups. The second group

disguise the contradiction of their approach to old age by use of such terms as ‘healthy life span’ which avoids having to confront the desirability of death.

Introduction

Recent scientific interventions have achieved dramatic increases in longevity amongst nematode worms, fruit-flies and mice. It is suggested that these experiments open the possibility of greatly extended human longevity and such views are reflected in popularising science. This paper examines the impact of the culture of science on the meaning of old age. In particular it examines claims that science can stop or postpone ageing and death, either completely or in the very long term. This examination reveals the methods through which old age is constructed and devalued by reference to death.

‘Age’ is both a verb and a noun: it stands for both a process and also a set of categories. Some parts of the trajectory of social and biological change over time are identified as ‘ageing’. It is understood as a sequence of stages and statuses to which specific age based normative expectations are attached. The specific content of those processes and categories are contested; their meanings are not fixed. The future life course may have different life stages; new divisions in the 20C have included teenager, and ‘third ager’. There may also, in addition or instead be a breakdown in the structure of the life course with less definite stages or sequences. There is much useful historical gerontology that documents changing understanding of old age and the rise of the modern dominance of medical definitions of the phenomenon (Achenbaum 1978, Van Tassel and Stearns 1986, Cole 1992, Lupton 2000, Thane 2000). Foucault classically illustrates shifts in the understanding of death:

“The aged body became reduced to a state of degeneration where the meanings of old age and the body’s deterioration seemed condemned to signify each other in perpetuity. By recreating death as a phenomenon in life, rather than of life, medical research on aging became separate from the earlier treatises that focuses on the promise of longevity.” (Foucault 1973:41)

While Katz locates the discourse of senescence:“in France in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, medical research

developed what we have called a discourse of senescence: a new organization of associated ideas and practices that captured the aged body through three commanding perceptions.(Katz:1996:40)

He lists these as (i) ‘the aged body as a system of signification’ - now physicians examine bodies for indications that they mask ‘inner states of disorder’; (ii) the aged body as having a distinct pathology requiring medical therapy; and, (iii) the aged body as dying. He argues that in premodern society, death was a mysterious external force while the science of the early nineteenth century reconceptualised death as an internal phenomena of the body. I suggest that contemporary science is also engaged in reconceptualising death and old age. Hayflick observes that it is impossible to die of old age in America today because it has been removed as on the 130 definitions – categories acceptable to put on a death certificate.

Cultural categories are established through boundaries - contrasts which mark semantic space. Meanings cannot be established in isolation, categories are part of meaningful systems which interlock. To understand old age it is necessary to know its boundaries,

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how to recognise it, and thus the markers which indicate the boundaries between what is old age and what is not. If we examine the language and the communications of those involved in this world we can see how the meanings they create are achieved, what kinds of distinctions are important, what are the key categories used, what components of the concepts used to explain and understand old age (c.f. Doyle 1997). The debates examined are in essence about defining the boundaries of the subject, who can count as a bone fides scientist of old age, who can claim knowledge about old age and on what basis and with what consequences. Thus the basic frame of the paper is to look at old age as a cultural category and to look at science as a form of culture to see how that culture constructs what is means to be old.

Katz usefully reminds us that such debates have long histories:“Thom’s investigations destroyed the idea that an individual could conserve vital

powers and extend life beyond the normal range of statistical and medical expectations. In so doing, he contributed to a medical fixing of the human lifespan proposed in other institutions, such as life insurance and pension and retirement programs. Premodern writers had assumed that a person could live to about 200 years given the right physical, moral, and environmental conditions. One can hardly question that a lifespan of 80 or 90 years, implied by Thoms, is obviously more realistic than one of 200 years. However, Thom’s work had a more important impact: it signalled the conceptual shift from the human lifespan as a miraculous possibility to a clinical, biological certainty.” (Katz 1996:45)

Thus the meaning of old are is established in communication in concrete situations, using linguistic and cultural resources on which the communicants can mutually draw. This approach can be used to examine the field of bio-gerontology and examine from the point of view of its participants what is the nature of old age and what is so bad about it. Military metaphors are particularly useful because they explicitly or implicitly identify an enemy.

What is “anti-ageing medicine” and what is it against?

If we examine the debates, controversies of anti-ageing science, we can identify contested boundaries. As a starting point we can draw on the participants for an initial definition of the field:

“Anti-aging interventions – a wide variety of ambitions and measures to slow, arrest, and reverse phenomena associated with aging…” (Post and Binstock 2004:1)

“this paper regard anti-aging medicine as a social movement…Anti-aging’s core mission [is to] to herald and operationalize aging itself as treatable…” (Mykytyn 2006:644)

“Like it or not, "anti-aging" now has a number of quite different common meanings and connotations. Each is championed by a particular group or loose coalition of interests, …

For the scientific community, anti-aging research refers exclusively to slowing, preventing, or reversing the aging process…

In the medical and more reputable business community, anti-aging medicine means early detection, prevention, and reversal of age-related diseases…

The wider business community - including a great many fraudulent and

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frivolous ventures - views "anti-aging" as a valuable brand and a demonstrated way to increase sales. … Broadly, and very charitably, we can look at these varied definitions of anti-aging as meaning "to look and feel younger in some way" - which has no bearing on how long you live or how healthy you actually are.”

http://www.longevitymeme.org/topics/what_is_anti-aging.cfm

Types of anti-ageing science

Several professional groups present themselves as ‘waging war’ on old age. They construct old age as a naturalised self-evidently negative biological phenomenon, which must be attacked and defeated. These groups differ in the weapons with which to defeat ageing based on their differing claims to technical expertise and ability to control natural phenomena. They can be classified into four groups:

1. There are those whose direct their control of the body to the removal of the signs of ageing, whose activities might be characterised as symptom alleviation.

2. There are those who equate old age with ill-health and identify themselves as warriors in a battle with disease.

3. There are those whose objective is to control fundamental intra-cellular processes where the objective is to extend or break the limits to the human life span.

4. There are also people whose explicit aim is to achieve immortality.

Thus we can construct a set of sub-categories of anti-ageing science.

Symptom alleviation - Cosmetic

Cosmetic – powder and paint, anti-wrinkle cream to disguise the signs of ageing

Prophylactic – exercise, diet or dietary supplements and life style programmes intended to stave off the onset of physical ageing and its signs

Compensatory – human growth hormone, viagra, HRT, designed to re-invigorate failing functions to a youthful standard.

Curative – Medical

Regenerative medicine, for example stems cell therapy, transplant surgery, to re-establish failing organs

Clinical interventions, particularly drug therapies, for specific diseases of old age such as cancer, heart disease, arthritis, (as opposed to palliative therapies).

Medical therapies based on diet, exercise designed to restore failing abilities.

Preventative – Biological

Epidemiological research – survey of centenarians and other long lived people to establish what is special about them; for example, their characteristic genes or their distinctive functioning. The objective being to use the science to generalize the knowledge to extend the particular causes of longevity to the rest of the population or to develop therapies using the knowledge.

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Evolutionary modeling – Application of scientific understanding of survival and reproduction strategies to the issue of human longevity; including how evolutionary processes are manifest in the genome; for example disposable soma theory and critics. The thrust of this research is finding and bypassing evolutionary limits to the life span.

Science of cell processes and in particular cell senescence - the basic biological processes of cell metabolism, cell functioning, cell reproduction – how cells live die and reproduce. This knowledge has expanded rapidly and is fuelled by research money and effort related to particular diseases particularly cancer where aberrant cell function is crucial. This science is tightly linked to understanding the genetic basis for ageing. It looks at the transformation of complex molecules through the cell cycle. – seeking modifications and therapies for pathological cell processes. This science is closely link to the fourth sub-type, both of which have been responsible to creating experimentally greatly extended life spans in model species.

Genomic science – scientific work to map gene sequencing and identify genetic processes and products. New large scale laboratory processes are used to conduct experimental work identify specific alleles / mutations and their effects. The volume of data is now so great that a new science of Systems Biology attempts to collate and integrate these experimental results – modeling complex gene protein cell process using advanced computational and mathematical skills. There is no single gene or set of genes for ageing, but the science hold out the prospect of gene therapies / genetic modification to slow, halt or reverse ageing processes.

Elimination – Immortalists

Commercial products and technical devices – The Cryogenics corporation offer to keep your body frozen until science has progressed sufficiently to revive you and keep you alive, a Californian service offers to clone your pet as thus through the mechanism of an identical replacement offer a form of immortality.

Scientific programmes for biological immortality - there are a number of Biologists / theoreticians who have presented detailed programmes of scientific research to achieve immortality. The include work by Shostak (2002) and the most widely publicised – Aubrey De Gray and his programme for SENS (Scientifically Engineered Negligible Senescence).

The fourfold classification of anti-ageing science used here does not represent a set of groups with hard boundaries but a continuum. We can take the example of the ageing brain by way of illustration. There are anti-ageing commercial entrepreneurs selling their dubious brain exercise CDs who clearly fall into the cosmetic category. But they make their sales pitch by appealing to well founded research which shows mental stimulation reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease. There is serious medical and bio-gerontological research into drug therapies for Alzheimer’s, and there is an important debate for example, about Aricept (donepezil) and its effective use. This is clearly medical research. There is linked research into brain enhancement drugs which have a preventative effect on dementia but which also increase the mental faculties of pilots (Yesavage et al 2002), soldiers, and can be marketed for children taking exams. In terms of biology, cell biology

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and bio-chemistry, enhancing cell protection and repair chemistry could potentionally sustain unimpaired functioning for longer. The immortalists on the other hand build on the science of stem cells to foresee the possibility brain cell replacement and repair and thus continuing undiminished mental function in extended life spans. Proper and bogus science is contested across all four categories.

Language and Imagery

When communicating about old age both in bio-gerontology and in more popular discourse metaphors of the body are employed. These metaphors are frequently of the body as a machine. Further the body is further objectified and distanced by thinking of it as a battlefield.

Mechanical metaphors can be seen as an essential part of the medical approach to the body whose roots lie in the enlightenment and the development of modern science. The French philosopher Rousseau wrote of the body in the following manner: “I see nothing in any animal but an ingenious machine, to which nature hath given senses to wind itself up, and to guard itself, to a certain degree, against anything that might tend to disorder or destroy it. I perceive exactly the same things in the human machine, with this difference, that in the operations of the brute, nature is the sole agent, whereas man has some share in his own operations,” (Rousseau 1755). Lupton (1994:62) suggests that “Since the industrial revolution, the mechanical metaphor has been frequently used in discourses on the body.” The steam engine is one such metaphor:

Living forces had been considered as standing apart from the rest of nature. Vital force, or vitality, had been thought of as something distinct in itself; and that there was any measurable relation between the powers of the living organism and the forces of heat and chemical affinity was of course unthinkable before the formulation of the doctrine of the correlation of forces. But as soon as that doctrine was understood it began to appear at once that, to a certain extent at least, the living body might be compared to a machine whose function is simply to convert one kind of energy into another. A steam engine is fed with fuel. In that fuel is a store of energy deposited there perhaps centuries ago... The engine then takes the energy thus liberated, and as a result of its peculiar mechanism converts it into the motion of its great fly-wheel. With this notion clearly in mind the question forces itself to the front whether the same facts are not true of the living animal organism. (Conn, 1903)

These mechanical metaphors reflect the technology of the time; electric metaphors; ‘recharging our batteries’, ’blowing a fuse’, clockwork metaphors; feeling ‘run down’; or hydraulic/ plumbing, transport (cars planes), computer, metaphors.

“The mechanical metaphor includes the idea that individual pasts of the body life parts of a car or plumbing system, may ‘fail’ or stop working, and can sometimes be replaced. The metaphor has the effect of separating mind and body, of valorizing medical techniques which focus upon locating a specific problem in part of the body and treating only that part …. Hence the importance of the technological imperative in biomedicine: the dependence upon the use of machinery to fix machinery … (Lupton 1994:63)

The literature of bio-gerontology is full of mechanical metaphors of the body and how it ages. For example the classis popularising texts of Alex Comfort (1979) and Tom

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Kirkwood (1999) are replete with such images and contemporary debates at bio-gerontological conferences makes use of them. For example Jan Vigg (at ICFGAiv) stated that “functional genomics is a tool box… the question is how to use it in the correct way”. Aubrey De Gray at London Regenerative Medicine Network presentation used “stopping the super tanker” metaphor to describe halting the ageing process; and repeatedly uses the analogy of powered flight from the Wright Brothers to jets planes to predict the future of anti-ageing “therapies”. He also talks about “escape velocity” to describe the point where progress in lengthening the life span is faster than the decline in life expectancy with age. Across the whole field of bio-gerontology but particularly in anti-ageing publicity material there are many images of clocks, and hour glasses to stand for time and reversing to overcome ageing, one specific example being the use of these images in the Alcor promotional DVD.

Lupton discuss the military metaphor and its use in medical discourse to good effect. “The language of warfare is extremely common in modern medical and public

health discourses … The immune system for example, is commonly described as mounting a ‘deference’ or ;siege’ against the ‘invasion’ of ;alien’ bodies or tumours which are ‘fought’, ’attacked’ or ‘killed’ by white blood cells, drugs or surgical procedures…

In such texts, bacteria are anthropomorphized into wily aggressors, deliberately changing themselves to elude detection and attack from their human foes…

Scientists… used colourful metaphors of war to describe their efforts; language that perhaps gives their endeavours legitimacy and a sense of great importance, position them as the ‘generals’ in the battle against disease.”

“Stein (1990), as a medical anthropologist working in an American hospital, engaged in participant observation of physicians treating their patients. … Doctors working in the hospital repeatedly described themselves as being ‘on the front line’, in need of a ‘getting aggressive’ with patients and using ‘shotgun therapy’ or ‘magic bullets’/ The commonly described working in the emergency room as being ‘in the trenches’. (Lupton 1994:67)

War metaphors.

“Aging is not inevitable! The war on aging has begun!” Slogan of the American Academy of Anti-aging medicine. Within the field of anti-ageing medicine, the relationship of the people who are ageing (i.e. all of us) to old age is constructed as antagonistic through the metaphor of war, and the practitioners of anti-ageing medicine as soldiers/warriors and their techniques imaged as weapons. I will examine in turn examples from each of the four types of anti-ageing science identified above - symptom alleviation (cosmetic), medical, biological, and immortalist. Then attempt to draw some general conclusions.

Cosmetic

Examples of war metaphors within cosmetic approaches to ageing are many and various. Examples from my field notes include their use in advertising material by the cosmetic firm Dove and prominence in literature promoting the A4M and many others. I suggest that these metaphors are particularly characteristic of public pronouncements by this group. References to a “war on ageing” seem to be used most frequently by commercial anti-ageing institutions selling products or treatments.

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Waging a War Against Aging The Latest in Anti-Aging Techniques By Teri Brown Ask any number of women how they feel about aging, and chances are you will receive some very passionate replies. It seems to be a topic most abhor, yet many obsess over. Traci Draper, 33, of Springtown, Calif., is no exception. "I am fighting it all the way," says Draper, laughing. "I don't believe I’d ever undergo surgical treatments, so I am fighting it now while I still have a chance. I exercise, drink lots of water and lather lotion on my face every morning and night … no matter what!" Although Peg Cochran of Grand Rapids, Mich., believes that aging is inevitable, she still combats aging the best ways she can: through exercising, reading and moisturizing.

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Medical

In medical discourse on anti-ageing there are examples of researchers and practioners using military metaphors including, including for example, heart specialists attending ICFGA, (Gridelli, Ruiz-Cabezas). Introducing his presentation on the use of stem cell technology to repair damaged hearts a Sicilian surgeon asked “What is the real emergency for society” which both clinicians and scientists are trying to solve. His answer is “end state organ failure”. He is a transplant surgeon. This scene setting for his presentation carries the implication that role of medicine and science is to ‘defeat’ [solve the problem of] death. But in my notes on imagery from ICFGA, military images are largely absent. I suggest this is because the participants had a self definition of themselves as scientists at a knowledge exchange gathering and not engaging in polemical or ethical debates. Such metaphors are more common in popular science journals life Nature, or Scientific American, than in the professional journals like Cell. Examples from popular science include “Is a fountain of youth in your future? By elucidating the factors that drive the aging process, researchers are hoping one day to postpone the ravages of age – and perhaps prolong life.” v; “The quest to beat aging” vi.

Biological

The physiology of the aging cell has been a source of great interest for decades, with numbers of scientists internationally devoted to cell senescence and other bio-chemical processes. The many biologists concerned with ageing mechanisms with the cell such as Martin, Campisi, Longo, Stanbrook, Guarente, use a variety of metaphors to explain and characterise cells and cell processes. A common strategy is to anthropomorphise them – talk about ‘cells deciding’ or bio-chemists can talk about a “very intelligent molecule”. Other images are available - stem cell therapists talk about their ‘live’ products as like ‘chemicals’ or ‘drugs’. Frequent references to classical (Greek and Roman) themes – Prometheus came up several times at ICFGA. – indicate a desire to locate themselves in a particular intellectual and educational tradition. “Klotho” gene is referred to as the “killing gene”vii. “Wouldn’t it be great if they could live healthy as they live longer” was the aspiration of Nir Barzilai at ICFGA who discussed this gene. With some exceptions, I

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found few references to military metaphors in conferences and professional journals. There was lots of talk about damage and repair – although these are not strictly military metaphors – they do image conflict carry connotations of what ‘ought’ and ‘ought not’ be happening in a cell. Therefore such discourse does contain a normative evaluation that ageing is ‘bad’.

Immortalists

There are biologists who propose routes to immortality, these include De Gray, Shostak, Magalhaes. These people frequently use military metaphors.

“I want to conquer aging because aging is and will be the major cause of suffering and death among the ones I love. I want to end aging to safeguard the future because I want to choose my future instead of being ruled by this hostile force. I want to cure aging because otherwise I will die. I don't know if I'll succeed, but I know I will not quit since to quit is to die.” Magalhaes

De Grey at the London Regenerative Medicine Network talks of “The War on Ageing – a real war” (not like 1971?) and speaks of doing “serious damage to ageing soon”. The quote “Conquering the blight of involuntary death…” Life Extension Conference publicity Nov 5. 2005.

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Ammunition in the war on ageing.

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In: The Scientific Conquest of Death: Essays on Infinite Lifespans (B.J. Klein et al., eds.), Libros en Red, 2004, in press.After the war on aging: speculations on some future chapters in the never-ending story of human life extension Aubrey D.N.J. de GreyQ: You've gotten quite a bit of attention lately for predicting that we will have the science within our lifetimes to extend human life spans to possibly thousands of years. Could you explain your point of view?A: It comes in three parts. Within ten years, with proper funding-about $100 million a year-I think we can develop a panel of seven types of "rejuvenation therapies," three of which I just mentioned, that will at least treble the remaining lifespan of already middle-aged mice. That will initiate a genuine "war on aging" which will attract many billions per year, which will, I think, translate such technology to humans by 2030, allowing middle-aged humans to live to about 130 on average. That, in turn, will let such people survive-in good health, mind-long enough to benefit from the second-generation rejuvenation therapies that may be needed to combat subtler aging components that we haven't yet discovered, so they will live even longer, so they'll get third-generation therapies, etc.That "bootstrapping" cycle means that people will live several hundred years because they will only die of accidents and such like. If they get more risk-averse as a result, as I predict, this will rise to thousands of years.Aging is an enemy. It saps our strength and ability to enjoy life, cripples us, and eventually kills us. Tens of millions die from age-related conditions each and every year. Comparatively few people know that degenerative aging can be modestly slowed with diet and lifestyle choices, as is the case for many medical conditions. Comparatively few people are aware of serious scientific efforts, presently underway, aimed at understanding and intervening in the aging process - in order to one day reverse its effects. One day, scientists will find a way to defeat aging. We would like this breakthrough to happen while we are still alive and in good health to benefit from it. http://www.longevitymeme.org/start_on_healthy_life_extension.cfm

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Defeating death solves old age“I'm afraid to die. No, that's an understatement. I'm terrified about it. The impossibility to conceive the nothingness that happens after death is so dreadful. Death is infinite suffering, an everlasting prison. As far as I can tell, my death is the end of the world. I'm atheist, which means I don't have religion to give me hope--and doesn't hope derive from a fear to face reality? I'm my own God, showing, perhaps, a certain egocentricity but also leaving no hope of salvation except at my own bare hands.”Assuming you live that long, your future is forgetting your children names, becoming sexually inactive, going five times a night to the bathroom, and having as main activity getting bored in hospital waiting rooms--assuming you're not in pain. My future is a future of unknown paths; my future might be to die tomorrow in a car accident or it might involve a holiday in Mars by the year 3000. I want to be a part of the future and not just a road to it. .” Magahlaes

Immortalists, frequently, often implicitly, have a fixed view of the age at wish they wish to live the rest of their lives. They see their biological ageing as halting at 13 or 25 or 32 or some other specific chronological age. It could well be argued that this s a middle aged person’s perspective. Older people can look back at transitions and research tends to suggest they adapt to bodily change (Oberg 2003). Children tend to not to have developed an understanding of the passing of time, they don’t have an understanding that they themselves will become old. Immortalist also lack a positive vision of themselves progressing to further life stages which comes with maturity, experience and adjustment. They discount the social process of ageing and do not seem to have understanding that society and social relationships do not stand still – with immortality how will a marriage develop over a thousand years, and will raising children become a fleeting transient relationship?

Interpretation

What is the nature of this foe we are to fight in the war on ageing? Can we make peace with it? We can classify the different meanings to old age and reference them against the enemy in the war, and weapons and strategies used in the conflict. These are set out in Table 1. In diagramme 2 the same data is indicatively set out along two dimensions. The first of these dimensions is the time span by which the technique or intervention will extend the human life span. From limited time preservation of age as appearance on one end, to indefinite extension envisioned by the immortalists on the other. The second dimension is that of scientific credentials. The claims of the participants as to the scientific nature of their interventions are of course highly contested. However, if we use a rough rule of thumb based in academic position and publication in peer reviewed journals we can locate people on one end employed by commercial companies in marketing positions with no medical or biological certification who write only publicity material, to on the other end scientists with established laboratory positions in major Universities with substantial publication records in leading peer reviewed journals. This diagramme serves the useful function of illustrating that main stream science in the sense of rigorous hypothesis testing, experimental model of knowledge creation can be applied to the complete spectrum of anti-ageing activity from cosmetic to infinite longevity.

War images are more prevalent on the left side of the diagramme. They are part of the rhetoric of people which is address to a non specialist audience from the perspective of limited credibility (non-main stream science). ‘Hard’ scientists are not immune from it, but need in their exchanges with each other, rather more specific language and metaphor. For example, ‘senescence’ is a term which has moved into the bio-gerontological lexicon and is now a specialist term and essential is to their vocabulary of cell processes. The war images tend to used by those being excluded - those who are struggling to get inside the respectable science networks and who are most frequently addressing themselves to non specialist, non-scientific audiences.

Dramatic images using military metaphors are useful for fund raising and publicity, less so for gaining recognition within the established academic and medical worlds. One leading London biologist summerised cosmetic and immortalist anti-ageing practitioners who he wished to exclude from science as “quacks and loonies.” The cosmetic charlatans can readily be excluded from main-stream science as quacks, less easily excluded are science based cosmetics – e.g. cosmetic surgery. Immortalists are excluded as lunacy, for

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putting forward fantasies that are beyond current abilities of science. However, it is also more difficult to exclude those who are researching within main stream biology laboratories and greatly extending the live spans of model species.

How the does the main stream academic bio-gerontology legitimate its activities. What values and symbols to they appeal to? Main stream bio-gerontological science does not proclaim loudly its ability to extended human longevity by longer and longer periods. Rather it makes a continual appeal to what is referred to as the ‘health span’. These scientists present themselves as studying fundamental biological processes in order to improve the health of old people – they ignore, dismiss ideas that their objectives to are extended the life span although they readily concede this may be a consequence of their research. Under the cover of this concept of ‘health span’ the mainstream can exclude “quacks and loonies” because the trivial cosmetics and dubious value of immortality are not primarily concerned with disease. The use of this rhetorical device can be illustrated with reference to interviews with scientists conducted at the ICFGA

A: “If we can age in better health not as old old but healthy old age – J: and then one day die?- A: Yes (embarrassed laugh).

B: “Not so much to prolong ageing but to reduce societal costs and pain.”

C: “if we can ease the ageing process, why not? The aim is to ease suffering not necessarily to prolong life”

D: “caloric restriction prevents cancer and could really improve the quality of life. Maybe it will also extend the life span to 150 years but that is not the driving force.”

This ‘health span’ concept is the dominant mode of explanation but it is not without its problems. For example, much of the epidemiological research suggests life style factors are significant in health extension, with factors such as diet, exercise, avoidance of stress, and mental activity being relevant. This leave space for ‘anti-ageing medicine’ which take similar forms to ‘new age’ life style gurus marketing ‘alternative’ therapies but which can refer to science based studies of lifestyle influences on longevity. However, the use of the concept cannot entirely avoid the moral and social dilemmas which arise from a fundamental change in the human life span.

Conclusion

The most prolific use of military metaphors comes from the Cosmetic and Immortalist categories of anti-ageing science when appealing to non establishment audiences. On the other hand the Medical, and particularly, the Biological type disguise the contradiction of their approach to old age by use of such terms as ‘healthy life span’ which avoids having to confront the desirability of death.

The rhetoric of a ‘war on ageing’ positions the practitioners of anti-ageing medicine on the moral high ground as valiant warriors against a terrible fate, and insofar as a claim to scientific status can be successfully sustained, it means that their failures are because insufficient money and resources have been devoted to the battle. Because culturally scientific knowledge is understood as inevitably progressive and represents true knowledge it is seen as infallible in its potential control of bodily mechanisms. Importantly this rhetoric positions older people as the defeated.

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However, as old age becomes increasingly ‘biologised’ it is in fact, in parallel to biological understanding of ageing, becoming fragmented and loosing coherence as a concept. There are many biological stories of ageing, and more are being produced, - there is not a single story of the biology of human ageing. Biology could tell a variety of stories about old age and death and not all are necessarily negative. The good old age could be constructed as a positive final stage in life concluded by a healthy death. It might also be constructed as the death defying capabilities of an enhanced/super human/ cyborg (c.f. Haraway 1991).

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Table 1: Typology of anti-ageing scienceType Length of

life extension

Battle against (The enemy) Techniques (Weapons, armory)

Desirable outcomes (Victory)

Who is involved

Symptom alleviation(Cosmetic)

Now Wrinkles, skin tone, obesity, fatigue, loss of sex drive, hair loss / colour. Loss of Self-esteem, socially acceptable body image, inner balance, spirituality, the pressures of modern life

Snake oil,CreamsSurgeryDrugs hormone replacement, Growth hormone,Exercise, fitness, life style changes to smoking, diet.

Looking good, feeling good, - meaning looking young, feeling young.

Dove, A4M and many others

Curative(Medical)

A few years

Diseases and their symptoms:Cancer, heart disease / circulatory disorders, respiratory disease; auto-immune disease, arthritis; osteoporosis, dementias – Alzheimer’sSpecific genetic disorders - progeria.

Research – drugs and therapies.Clinical practice, technical innovation and improvements e.g. heart surgery, transplants, stem cellsApplication of science (genome research) to treatment, cure, or prevention of specific (genetic) conditions.

Cures (or possibly the elimination of disease)

Many – example of heart specialists attending ICFGA, Gridelli, Ruiz-Cabezas

Preventative(Biological)

A number of years

Senescence,Declining efficiency of cellular reproduction and integrity.

Manipulation of genome and protein cascades to prevent or repair senescence. Or research into prophylactic dietary supplements

Extending the health [life?] span

Martin, Campisi, Longo, Stanbrook Guarente, etc.

Eradication(Futurist)

For ever Death, bodily ‘failure’ Science based regenerative techniques to systematically renew or replace failing organs and processes

Slowing, stopping or reversal of the (single?) ageing process

De Gray, Shostak, Magalhaes

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No life extension

Long life extension

Low Scientific Credentials

High Scientific Credentials

Hair colour replacement stem cell therapy

Hypo-allergenic skin creams

Human growth hormone therapy

Cryogenics

Diet and exercise regimes

Stem cell cardiac therapies

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Notes:

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Shilling, C. (1993) The Body and Social Theory. London: Sage.*Shostak, S. (2002) Becoming Immortal: Combining Cloning and Stem-cell Therapy. Albany: State University of New York Press.Taylor, C.A. (1996) Defining Science: A Rhetoric of Demarcation. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Thane, P. (2000) Old Age in English History: Past Experiences, Present Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Turner, B.S. (1984) The Body and Society: Explorations in Social Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.*Van Tassel, D., and P.N. Stearns (1986) Old Age in a Bureaucratic Society: The Elderly, the Experts, and the State in American History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Vincent, J.A. (2003a) Old Age. London: Routledge.Vincent, J.A. (2003b) Review Article: ‘What Is at Stake in the “War” on Anti-ageing Medicine?’, Ageing and Society 23(4):675–84.

i Vincent, John A, (2006) “Anti-ageing Science and the Future of Old Age.” in Vincent, John A, Chris Phillipson and Murna Downs (Eds.) The Futures of Old Age. London: Sage. pp. 203-10.

Vincent, John A. (forthcoming 2006) “Ageing Contested: Anti-ageing Science and the Cultural Construction of Old Age.” Sociology 40,4 (August 2006).

ii S Jay Olshansky; Leonard Hayflick; Bruce A Carnes. (2002) “No truth to the fountain of youth” Scientific American; Vol. 286, No. 6: 92-95.

iii Huber Warner, Julie Anderson, Steven Austad, Ettore Bergamini, Dale Bredesen, Robert Butler, Bruce A. Carnes, Brian F. C. Clark, Vincent Cristofalo, John Faulkner, Leonard Guarente, David E. Harrison, Tom Kirkwood, Gordon Lithgow, George Martin, Ed Masoro, Simon Melov, Richard A. Miller, S. Jay Olshansky, Linda Partridge, Olivia Pereira-Smith, Tom Perls, Arlan Richardson, James Smith, Thomas von Zglinicki, Eugenia Wang, Jeanne Y. Wei & T. Franklin Williams (2005) “Science fact and the SENS agenda: What can we reasonably expect from ageing research?” EMBO reports 6, 11, 1006–1008 (2005).

iv ICFGA International Conference on Functional Genomics of Ageing. I attended the third in this series of conferences as an observer at Palermo 29 March -1st April 2006. I thank the British Council for a grant which enable that observation to take place. The data from the conference is a significant part of the empirical data for this paper.v

? ‘Making Methuselah’ Scientific American 1999 p. 32

vi Scientific American 2000 p.8-15vii "Klotho" a gene named for the Greek Fate purported to spin the thread of life, contributes to life expectancy in humans, according to a team led by Johns Hopkins scientists who report their findings in the 15th January 2006 online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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