So, V is dying, right?
Some information on telomeres and aging that’s salient to my point: here TL;DR: telomeres are little caps on the ends of your DNA strand that protect it. As you age your cells divide to make new cells, and the telomeres get damaged, and that’s why we age.
Plastic surgery and implants aside, the way the ultra rich stay young is by nanite injections. Now, one would assume that the nanites look at the degraded telomeres and repair them, based on other telomeres in the surrounding tissue, as well as repairing damaged DNA strands. And there’s your fountain of youth.
SPOILERS. End-game SPOILERS. Read at your own risk past this point.
At the end, in Mikoshi, Alt tells V and Johnny that the relic has overwritten and degraded too much of V’s DNA for V to survive, even if Johnny vacates the premises.
By the end V has bled all over half of night city and a considerable amount of her own clothing, and her hair brush, her bed, her couch and every where else, hell, Delamain probably has a bunch of blood from before she died. She has a lot of DNA samples that aren’t quite so degraded, and if you speed run the main quests only, they may even still be viable. And depending on how you play, there’s a good chance that you either have some ultra rich friends, or are ultra rich yourself.
Nanites + money + DNA samples = why can’t they repair the damage?
Additionally, if you look at Adam Smasher, all they really need to fix is Vs brain. They could use far. Fewer nanites than a full body rejuvenation, or take multiple runs at fixing the brain. They can build her a new body. Or use another relic chip to overwrite her on a brain that’s no longer in use. Or have her overwrite her own brain. It erase Johnny and use the same relic chip for that purpose.
I feel like there are so many solutions to this problem, and money is the hurdle.
And why doesn’t Kerry offer to help. It’s not like he’s hurting for cash and he can obviously afford the nanites for himself. He’s filthy, disgustingly, absurdly rich and is more money than he could use even if he lives for 500 years. Selfish millennial.