Susan Mccarthy Immortality

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In her essay, "On Immortality" Susan McCarthy addresses the idea of immortality and raises important questions about its practicality. McCarthy argues that immortality may not be practical or beneficial to humanity. She incorporates the most common appeals seen in literature in her essay including emotional, ethical, and logical appeals. An important part of McCarthy's argument is the emotional appeal. By incorporating figurative language, the strong emotional ties that infertility and cancer have, and scientific findings McCarthy presents a strong case for the impracticality of immortality.


"On Immortality" contains many instances of figurative language. One such instance is a metaphor found within the essay that provides a clear example as to why immortality would be complicated. "It's like a car... if you keep replacing the parts the car could last forever." …show more content…

She states that immortality may come with certain "trade-offs" (McCarthy 546). This word choice builds suspense for the possible outcomes and puts the reader on edge. Later, the author reveals these trade-offs in the statement, "Cancer obviously could be a downside, as could altered fertility (McCarthy 546)." This startling information elicits strong emotions from the reader and furthers the doubt that immortality has practical applications. McCarthy furthers this doubt with statements from Professor Hayflick on a study that proves that cells cannot divide forever. After a period of time, the cells will cease to replicate and the cells that do continue to divide are cancer cells (McCarthy 547). This elicits strong emotions from the reader, especially if they have had cancer or have seen a loved one fight against the disease. This brings into question whether the quality of life that an immortal one would be if after fifteen years or so they would develop

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