Who Wants to live forever- Think of the legal fees!
A closer look at the legal issues in Drew Magary’s “The Postmortal”
If
you could get a shot that would prevent you from aging, would you? DC
local and sports blogging funnyman tackles this question in his
entertaining, futuristic novel “The Postmortal.” In the year 2050, a
cure for aging is discovered. The gene replacement therapy will not
prevent diseases, or save you from a car crash, but it will lock you in
at the age you are at when you get the cure. The book is set in places
that will be familiar to DC readers, and the results are surprisingly
plausible.
The
cure is initially banned by lawmakers, but gradually legalized through
the legislative process. Many of the issues surrounding the cure mirror
what we see today: initially only aristocrats have access to it, similar
to what we see with many international experimental cures and gene
therapies. The violent religious and political reactions to the cure may
remind many of how some americans react to end-of-life care and
abortion issues.
Other
legal issues soon arrive, and law firms become the most profitable
companies in America. Most lawyers are busy drafting “cycle marriages,”
which are legal agreements that automatically cancel after 50 years.
With an eternity to live, most partners are not interested in settling
down for more than a few decades, and want to have legal protections in
place. As social order begans to break down, overcrowding and resource
scarcity reach a boiling point. Soon, the government becomes in charge
of deciding who may live or die, and contracts out “end specialists” to
thin out the population.
“The
Postmortal” is a thrilling look at a possible distopian future. Instead
of a traditional narrative, the book uses blog posts, news stories,
jouranl entries, and interviews to tell the story. The book has a
cinematic feel, and will one day make a great movie. Fans of “Children
of Men” and “The Matrix” will love it. But fear not, law students. The
postmortal future may be bleak, but there will be plenty of jobs for law
students.
