[extropy-chat] ENOUGH again

[Damien Broderick]

----- Original Message -----
From: <natashavita at earthlink.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 12:01 PM

> Rather than specifically stating that agelessness and indefinite life span
> (ILS)ought to be made illegal, he states that such are be morally illegal

He does indeed state that they ought to be made illegal (in more general
terms that cover any germline enhancements):

`People shouldn't be allowed to choose things this deep for their children
(and for every generation thereafter),' (192)

Note, incidentally, the bizarre customary slip: if we gain the power to make
any changes we wish in the DNA of our offspring, this should be forbidden
because these changes will thereafter be permanently embedded in the
species. Say what?

McKibben goes on:

`That [i.e. making such germinal-choice changes illegal] will involve
limiting freedom, just as forbidding people to drive their cars the wrong
way down  one-way street limits freedom. The liberty of one generation,
ours, would be in some small way constrained... in order to protect the far
more basic liberties of those yet to come. To demand this right is to make a
mockery of liberty. It's to choose, forever, against choice.' (192)

Damien Broderick