Dying in a Transhumanist and Posthuman Society

139 Pages·2021·14.73 MB·English

by  Panagiotis Pentaris

Dying in a Transhumanist and
Posthuman Society
Exploring both the intrapersonal (moral) and interpersonal (ethical) nature
of death and dying in the context of their development (philosophical), Dying
in a Transhumanist and Posthuman Society shows how death and dying have
been and will continue to be governed in any given society.
Drawing on transhumanism and discourses about posthumanity, life
prolongation and digital life, the book analyses death, dying and grief via
the governance of dying. It states that the bio- medical dimensions of our
understanding of death and dying have predominated not only the discourses
about death in society and the care of the dying, but their policy and practice
as well. It seeks to provoke thinking beyond the benefits of technology and
within the confinements of the world transhumanists describe.
This book is written for all who have an interest in thanatology (i.e. death
studies) but will be useful specifically to those investigating the experiences
of dying and grieving in contemporary societies, wherein technology, biology
and medicine continuously advance. Thus, the manuscript will be of interest
to researchers in a broad range of areas including health and social care,
social policy, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, cultural studies, and, of
course, thanatology.
Panagiotis Pentaris is an Associate Professor of Social Work and Thanatology
in the School of Human Sciences at the University of Greenwich, London,
England, UK. He is also a member of the Institute for Lifecourse Development,
an internationally recognised institute focusing on interdisciplinary research
across the lifespan. He is a council member for the Association for the Study
of Death and Society, and over the last ten years he has researched and
published on death, dying, bereavement, culture and religion, social work,
social policy and LGBTQIA+ issues.
Routledge Studies in the Sociology of Health and Illness
The Rise of Autism
Risk and Resistance in the Age of Diagnosis
Ginny Russell
Performance Comparison and Organizational Service Provision
U.S. Hospitals and the Quest for Performance Control
Christopher Dorn
Survivorship: A Sociology of Cancer in Everyday Life
Alex Broom and Katherine Kenny
Living Pharmaceutical Lives
Peri Ballantyne and Kath Ryan
Conflict of Interest and Medicine
Knowledge, Practices, and Mobilizations
Edited by Boris Hauray, Henri Boullier, Jean- Paul Gaudillière and Hélène Michel
Weight Bias in Health Education
Critical Perspectives for Pedagogy and Practice
Edited by Heather Brown and Nancy Ellis- Ordway
Dying in a Transhumanist and Posthuman Society
Panagiotis Pentaris
Digital Transformations in Care for Older People
Critical Perspectives
Helena Hirvonen, Mia Tammelin, Riitta Hänninen and Eveline J.M. Wouters
Public Discourse and Health Policies
The Price of Health in Contemporary Italy
Nicoletta Bosco
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge- Studies- in- the- Sociology- of- Health- and- Illness/ book- series/ RSSHI
Dying in a Transhumanist
and Posthuman Society
Panagiotis Pentaris
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Panagiotis Pentaris
The right of Panagiotis Pentaris to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Pentaris, Panagiotis, author.
Title: Dying in a transhumanist and posthuman society / Panagiotis Pentaris.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021033188 (print) | LCCN 2021033189 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367542177 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367542238 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003088257 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Death–Social aspects. | Death. | Transhumanism. |
Posthumanism. Classification: LCC HQ1073 .P458 2021 (print) |
LCC HQ1073 (ebook) | DDC 306.9–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021033188
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021033189
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 54217- 7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 54223- 8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 003- 08825- 7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/ 9781003088257
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Newgen Publishing UK
For my son
Thank you for teaching me how to appreciate life.

Contents
List of figures ix
Acknowledgements x
Introduction 1
Previous explorations of the policing of grief and dying 3
Policing/ medicalisation of grief 4
Policing/ medicalisation of death 8
21st- century challenges 11
The aim of this book 13
Overview of the book 14
1 Transhumanism and the posthuman being 18
Introduction 18
What do we mean with the terms ‘transhumanism’ and ‘posthuman’? 22
Religion and transhumanist debates 28
Who is the human? 32
Technological advancements 33
Robotics, robots and social life 33
Cyberrevolution and smart devices 35
Digital immortality and mind cloning 37
Technology by geography 39
Tech- death and tech- grief 39
Altered conceptions of death and grief 40
The technological dimensions of regulating death 42
2 Biomedicine and death 48
Introduction 48
Biomedical advancements 52
Cryonics 56
Robotic surgery 58
Artificial organs 58
Biohacking 60
viii Contents
Cloning 61
Nanomedicine 63
Disposal of the body and revival 64
Prolongation of life and immortality in utopian realities? 65
3 Transhumanism in the social context 72
Introduction 72
Human relationships and virtual selves 75
The social environment and alienation 79
Human experience in a transhumanist social environment 82
The natural environment 85
Transhumanism and human rights 88
4 An unsettled future 95
Introduction 95
Why is the future unsettled? 97
The uneven progressions of technology, medicine and society 102
Advancements in a changing environment 105
Death, dying and grief in the hamster wheel of the future 107
Futuristic dialogue 109
Death as a choice 110
Coda 111
Conclusions 117
Index 123
Figures
2.1 Life expectancy between 1800 and 2015, globally 54
3.1 The space of possible modes of being 75