From Qin Shi Huang to Putin: The dangerous dream of immortality

On 3 September, while attending the Victory Day parade in Beijing to commemorate the 80th anniversary of China’s triumph in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the global victory over fascism, Russian President Vladimir Putin remarked that humans could achieve “immortality” through organ transplantation. 

When asked about his statement at a press conference later that day, Putin confirmed that he had made such remarks. He said, “Modern means and methods of improving health, even various surgical [operations] involving organ replacement, allow humanity to hope that… life expectancy will increase significantly.”

The pursuit of longevity and health is a normal right and legitimate hope for everyone, and is an ideal. However, it must be achieved through reasonable, legal and scientifically rational means.

Just as there are many paths to wealth, people pursue longevity in different ways. In general, when individuals rely on rational and lawful means, they are less likely — if at all — to turn to unorthodox or even criminal methods to achieve the freedom that comes with long life or prosperity. Moreover, such illicit avenues are often beyond their reach in the first place. But the privileged are different. Leveraging their power and wealth, they can exploit numerous means to achieve dreams — including longevity — unattainable to ordinary folks.

Putin and other dictators like him are more likely to achieve the freedom of longevity and wealth. Putin has often said, “Wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, that’s ours”, implying that the whole of Ukraine is “ours”. Surely he holds this mindset in his pursuit of longevity, confident that it would be an effortless endeavour. This is because: the organs, lives and health of others belong to Putin as long as he desires or needs them.

Putin is no longer hiding his pursuit of longevity; he has instructed the Russian Ministry of Health to make extending life expectancy a primary goal, focusing on developing “technologies to prevent cellular ageing, neurotechnologies and other innovations ensuring longevity”. The Russian state news agency TASS reported that by 2030, the authorities will invest about 210 billion roubles (US$2.53 billion) in this project.

On the surface, Putin’s interest in anti-ageing technologies and organ transplantation as paths to longevity appears to reflect faith in science. But this superficial grasp of science reveals something more archaic: in their quest for immortality, Putin and others among the world’s elites and autocrats are not so different from ancient emperors chasing elixirs of life.

The first emperor of China Qin Shi Huang’s obsession with immortality led him down a path of insanity; he was not only infatuated with the concoction of “elixirs”, he even sent alchemist Xu Fu with 3,000 boys and girls, along with craftsmen, eastward to Penglai in search of an elixir of immortality. Qin Shi Huang himself consumed many elixirs made by alchemists. They all contained toxic heavy metals such as mercury, which led to severe poisoning and life-threatening consequences.

Modern scientific anti-ageing technologies and organ transplantation — though offering a deeper understanding of life mechanisms than alchemy — remain somewhat superficial and unclear. To date, no method has been proven to reverse mortality or significantly extend human life — except, perhaps, through a healthy lifestyle and mindset.

Since 2021, Bryan Johnson, a 47-year-old American billionaire, has been implementing an “anti-ageing programme” to slow down his ageing process. He spends US$2 million annually with a team of over 30 professional doctors devising an anti-ageing scheme that covers diet, supplements, exercise, sleep and medical interventions, with every step meticulously informed by data, aiming to restore the functions of his body’s organs to that of an 18-year-old. The programme also includes blood transfusions — using plasma from his 17-year-old son, Talmage Johnson — and gene therapy, involving the use of follistatin, which reportedly increased the lifespan of mice undergoing similar treatment by 30%.

Bryan Johnson claimed that he accumulated ageing damage more slowly than 99% of 20-year-olds. As of November 2024, his ageing rate has decreased to 0.64, meaning that he only ages 0.64 years per year.

However, researchers generally question his results in slowing down ageing because he has tried hundreds of methods, making it difficult to determine which ones truly work. His experiments to slow down ageing have consistently not been recognised by the mainstream medical community or regulatory agencies.

Johnson’s anti-ageing plan has also faced ethical concerns, such as infusing his son’s plasma. Some wealthy individuals believe in infusing youthful blood to slow ageing; it is claimed that Peter Thiel, one of Facebook’s earliest investors, infused his blood with that from young and healthy individuals. However, these are all carried out clandestinely, with few like Johnson openly promoting them.

In reality, the greatest concern would be if the privileged — believing that methods such as infusing blood from the young or transplanting youthful organs can slow ageing — find ways and means to use their wealth and power to acquire and implement such methods for immortality.

Organ transplantation is criticised today as it is embroiled in ethical controversy. While organ transplants can save lives, they are unlikely to extend lifespan as they do not slow down the ageing of the entire body. Moreover, as there is a need for immunosuppressants, it could even accelerate the decline of overall physiological functions. However, the privileged often do not understand or believe in true scientific principles. They would try anything as long as there is a smattering of chances it could slow down ageing. Those who take it to the extreme are likened to ancient emperors who had youths buried with them.

For extreme individuals among the privileged, when seriously ill and requiring organ transplants, or when believing the rumours that organ transplants can extend life, they would not hesitate to use money and power to obtain healthy donors, especially the young ones, just as Qin Shi Huang in the past and the likes of Johnson today would be inclined to do. 

Although organ transplant surgeries today have established organ allocation systems to distribute the limited resources to the most suitable recipients in a fair, transparent and effective manner based on clinical and ethical principles, a black market for organ transplants shadows this system. Organ trade is even legal in some countries, such as Iran.

On the black market, everything from teeth, corneas, various internal organs, to stem cells and skin can be bought, with prices ranging from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of US dollars — nothing is off the market. According to World Health Organisation statistics, there are about 10,000 cases of organ sales on the black market globally each year.

When Putin talks about organ transplants and other anti-ageing technologies, and repeatedly mentions that land trodden by Russian soldiers is Russian territory, it is understandable why people are concerned. To achieve longevity, Putin could use power and money to obtain organs from the young and healthy for transplantation.

This is also the reason why people are shocked and uneasy upon hearing Putin openly discuss organ transplants and other means of slowing ageing. Such autocrats often act like the emperors of the past, greedy for “500 more years from heaven” relentlessly driven by an unyielding determination to pursue this illusory dream.

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “权贵追逐长寿令世界担忧”.

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