[extropy-chat] Thoughts on Schiavo

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

My first reaction when I first heard of the Schiavo case was outrage
at the Christian Right's insistence on still considering Terri as a
thinking and living human being who should be kept on life support at
all costs even if there is no chance that she may recover any mental
functions. I think a "person" is a thinking and feeling entity, or
someone who may someday recover the status of thinking and feeling
entity, and that biological samples which do not and cannot think and
feel (embryos, cells, ...) are not persons. This is, after all, the
basis of our support for abortion and stem cell research: no harm is
done to persons. So I thought that the proper thing to do was
switching life support off.

Then when I saw her pictures on television I realized that the fact
that she moves her eyes can give a very strong impression that she is
at least feeling something. Someone emotionally involved, like her
parents, is not likely to believe any medical statement that she is
does not, and never will, think and feel. So I ask myself what I would
feel if I were in the place of Terri Schiavo's parents. Would I feel
that society is murdering my daughter? Perhaps I would. Why shouldn't
Terri Schiavo's parents be allowed to keep the hope, or the delusion,
that their daughter may wake up smiling? Is it because taxpayers are
paying for life support? Would things change if they were paying for
it themselves?

Doctors say that Terri Schiavo will never think or feel anything. But
most doctors also say that today's cryonics patients will never be
revived, and that life extension technology will never work. Does this
mean that we should give up on cryonics and life extension? Does it
depend on who is paying? It seems reasonable to think that those who
can pay for cryonics and life extension should be allowed to do so,
but that taxpayers' money should be spent wisely and focused where it
can be effective. But how do you explain that to Terri Schiavo's
parents? And how do you explain it to those who will want to try
experimental deep life extension therapies without being able to
afford it?

All questions and no answers: these are difficult issues.