[extropy-chat] ILE: life just got a little more complicated

[Robert J. Bradbury]

Terminology:
ILE: Indefinite Lifespan Extension -- preferable to
"IMMORTALITY" because IMMORTALITY can take too many
hits based on the physics of the universe.  (Protons
decaying, expansion accelerating, black holes consuming
everything else, yada yada yada...).

Ok, now one of the serious questions that people should
be concerned with with respect to ILE is precisely *how*
do I get my cake.  For those of us on the upside end of
40, or perhaps 30, cryonics enters into the equation.

*But* as some of us know cryonics becomes pretty *iffy*
if the legal authorities stick their fingers into the works.
(Cases in point range from the current situation regarding
the Martinot's in France to the case of Dora Kent in the past.)

Today's Science News has a case of good-news/bad-news.

"Radically New Anti-rejection Drug Shown To Offer Safe Control Of
Immune System In Stanford Study"
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/11/031104063449.htm

The net result of this (and other efforts) to make organ
transplants safer, more effective, cheaper, etc. will be
to strengthen the arguments of those who desire that organ
donation be made mandatory.

Now, mandatory organ donation would be extropic if (a)
one did not ever under any conditions wish to be
reanimated; or (b) whether people were comfortable with
head/brain-only preservation and the reconstruction of a
body if one so desired.  However without one of those two
criteria being satisfied it would seem that mandatory
organ donation would be a fundamental violation of
personal rights.

It would appear that we are on a road where at least some
states may confiscate parts of your remains to preserve
the lives of others whether you feel this is reasonable
or not.

Discussion?

R.