[ExI] Transhumanism and Politics

Eugen Leitl eugen at leitl.org
Wed Jan 23 10:30:14 UTC 2008


On Wed, Jan 23, 2008 at 09:55:52AM +0000, BillK wrote:

> The great majority of medical expenditure in first world countries is
> in fighting the battle of the last five years of life.  Countries who

There is de facto rationing in terminal health care, and it's going
to get a lot more in-the-face, lest heath care bankrupts our economies. 
There is a definite potential for cost cuts if euthanasia and cryonic 
suspension is an official option. It's hard to see what the real
costs for the procedure would be, probably 2-3x of what Alcor currently
charges. But, this is a conjecture. I haven't done the math.

A PR nightmare and a terrible hard sell -- of course, of course.

> have a national health service, like Europe and Australia will welcome
> life extension if it involves a small one-off payment or small ongoing
> costs.  (They might not be so keen if the costs are horrendous and
> ongoing).
> 
> The basic problem with the US is that medical care there has a large
> profit element and companies will be reluctant to remove their biggest
> revenue (profit) source. Their only alternative will be to make the
> charges for life extension treatments high enough to compensate for
> their loss of profit elsewhere.
> 
> Nothing personal, it's just business.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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