No more ‘playing God’: How the longevity field is trying to recast its work as serious science

SAN FRANCISCO — “Why is it in popular culture, if you want to live forever, you are evil and you want to kill babies on the side?” says Martin Borch Jensen.

It’s fast approaching 10 p.m. on the first night of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, and among a couple stragglers at a dinner for longevity CEOs, scientists, and investors, the conversation has turned from the practical or merely social to the philosophical.

Borch Jensen, co-founder and CSO of anti-aging gene therapy startup Gordian, and Daisy Robinton, CEO and co-founder of Oviva, a biotech working to prevent ovarian aging, toss around theories as ice cream melts into leftover cobbler saucers on the bar behind them. Borch Jensen points to Harry Potter, where Voldemort divides his soul into pieces and hides each bit.

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