proposed case study for economics: immortality

Dr. Aubrey de Grey believes that life-extension medicine will come into being within the next few decades.   He also posits that further advancements in this technology will effectively make humans immortal.  I know this sounds nuts, but check out a video of him at the TED conference making his case here: http://baris.typepad.com/venture_capitalist/2006/10/the_science_of_.html

While Dr. Grey is not a profiteer, the video appears on the blog of a Venture Capitalist, and some of the reader comments claim that the firms selling this technology could set a price based upon the client's net worth.   This was widely discussed in the blogosphere, for example, here.

I would think that economists would have a lot to say about this.