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

[R.Coyote]

Who has property rights over your "dead" body?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury at aeiveos.com>
To: "Extropy Chat" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 4:06 PM
Subject: [extropy-chat] ILE: life just got a little more complicated


> 
> 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.
> 
> 
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