[extropy-chat] Thoughts on Schiavo

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

Quoting Giu1i0 Pri5c0 <pgptag at gmail.com>:

>
> 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?

### Well, there is the problem of Ms. Schiavo's wishes - as little as we know
about them, second-hand from her former husband, she didn't want her body to be
used as a puppet, a toy to assuage her parents' emotional pain.

--------------------------

> 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?

### If you don't believe in it, don't even start.
-------------------

 Does it
> depend on who is paying?

### Of course. No pay, no life extension.
------------------

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.

### Exactly. Except there should be no taxpayer's money in the first place.
-------------------------
 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?

### A long time ago my parents explained to me that we couldn't afford to buy
the vast majority of things I wanted but I should feel free to try and earn
money to buy some of them. That's the way things are.

For grown-ups, this is all the explanation that's needed.

Rafal