To make things more complex, cancer cells are able to regenerate rapidly because telomerase is reactivated. Thus, the inhibition of telomerase in these cancerous cells would cause them to age and die prematurely while leaving non-cancerous cells unaffected. In other words, the activation of telomerase could possibly create cell immortality to prevent chronic degenerative diseases while the inhibition of telomerase could possibly kill cancerous cells.

Even though telomerase is only one of 7,000 or so genes that affect aging, the Geron Corporation's findings suggest that the reduction of physical aging and disease in the not-too-distant future is very real. Most of us seek the youth and health that this telomerase research might yield for ourselves and for our family and friends. No doubt the reduction of physical pain, as well as the mental and emotional anguish that results from loss, could be reduced in our society.

Not everyone shares this enthusiasm, however. Some worry about who will pay for the drugs since socialized medicine is far from universal. Others fear that such advances in genetic engineering would have a domino effect. They would increase life expectancy, leading to a larger world population and significantly reduced natural resources. Similar effects can be seen over the last forty years as the world's population has doubled in size to six billion people. Don Hinrichsen, a reporter for the National Wildlife Federation, points out that this population increase has already threatened our precious natural resources as follows:

• Increased consumption has led to less water available per person. Thirty-one countries experience chronic water shortages for all or part of the year and water sources are becoming increasingly polluted.
• Forests, which help regulate the Earth's climate, are dwindling because of the need for farmland, pastureland, and forest products. Ninety-nine percent of frontier forests are gone.
• Increased energy use, in the form of more cars and factories, has led to a rise in air pollution that could strongly affect the climate.
• Erosion of soil for large-scale mechanized agriculture and subsistence farmers has led to a decrease in fertile land for food production.

One can only imagine the implications on Earth's natural resources if new drugs capable of increasing human life expectancy and decreasing our mortality rates are created.

Geron. (2000). "Telomerase: Role in Cellular Aging and Cancer."
Retrieved March 15, 2002, from the World Wide Web:
http://www.geron.com/print.02.01_telomerase.html

United Nations Population Fund. (2001). "The Day of Six Billion ­ Fast Facts."
Retrieved March 15, 2002, from the World Wide Web:
http://www.unfpa.org/modules/6billion/facts.htm

Hinrichsen, D. (1999). "6,000,000,000 Consumption Machines." National Wildlife Federation.
Retrieved March 15, 2002, from the World Wide Web:
http://www.nwf.org/internationalwildlife/1998/6billionso.html