ABSTRACT
Extending the human lifespan through aging attenuation is a core feature of the human enhancement project. While transhumanist and other pro-enhancement ethical approaches to longevity, informed by consequentialist or utilitarian perspectives, assert that slowing aging is ethically warranted, Christian perspectives on slowing aging are suffused with moral ambiguity that precludes both wholesale endorsement on the one hand and outright rejection on the other. The work of Francis Bacon and Karl Barth will serve as examples of differing Christian approaches to life extension, revealing, in particular, the tensions inherent in Christian doctrine and the deep ambiguities surrounding life extension by slowing aging. While these tensions may preclude any simplistic acceptance or rejection of life extension, this chapter asserts that Christian faith invites moral questions concerning sin and virtue in articulating a Christian response to life extension.
