I'm all for brain uploading if it's not a continuity-destroying method.
There's no way to experimentally determine if something that fully reconstructs an exact simulation, replica or simulacrum of a brain breaks continuity. The only source would be the one who had already been reconstructed, and that person wouldn't be able to tell; they would have experienced the whole thing, including the process of replication or simulation, and that person wouldn't be able to tell you if continuity was broken, as, to them, it wasn't.
Yep, that's my problem with that. You could kill someone and neither you, nor the simulation, could know that you have destroyed an independent consciousness. I'd prefer not to tamper with wetware if it could be avoided.
As for immortality, as amusing and somewhat cliche it might be, the easiest way to achieve immortality is by
not dying. That's why life expectancy doubled from 1600s - we eliminated the things that were the most common killers - infectious diseases. If we eliminate heart diseases and cancer, the primary modern killers, we can make it even higher.
If you think 'cool, but I'll end up being a 160 year old, wrinkled old geezer unable to enjoy life fully' - aging is not a function of time (i.e. how long you lived), but of damage at genetic and biochemical level - damage which can be halted, prevented or even reversed - yes, it had been demonstrated in rats/mice (can't remember right now) that you can de-age an organism.
Also, Descan, I'm not sure where you live, but there are other initiatives along the lines, for example
SENS.