[extropy-chat] the (scary) future of pro-death bioethics and legislation

[devon fowler]

I couldn't agree more and that is why I'm going to
start writing to some of the congress people to try to
abolish the council on bioethics as you have alluded
to in previous conversation.  I don't relish living my
life in a Logan's Run fascist scenario and I don't
think any of us her do as well.  Perhaps getting
people on our side by lobbying more is one solution
certainly bringing it up in everyday conversation
couldn't hurt.
--- Reason <reason at longevitymeme.org> wrote:
> For discussion, quoting below from myself and George
> Dvorsky. Read the
> articles.
> 
> http://www.fightaging.org/archives/000143.php
>
http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Columns/Transitory_Human/column.aspx?ar
> ticleID=2004-06-10-1
> http://www.fightaging.org/archives/000092.php
> 
> Government mandated limits to life span: it's an
> ugly idea, frequently
> explored in Science Fiction. Is it likely to happen
> in the real world,
> however? Worse things have been done to people in
> the name of law and
> government in the past, even in the recent past. If
> you live in a developed
> country, the chances are that government employees
> already have a great deal
> of control over your life span: your opinions on the
> matter are usually
> irrelevant.
> 
> ...
> 
> Of late, I have started to explore the idea that
> present day opposition to
> serious anti-aging research (as led by Leon Kass,
> Francis Fukuyama and
> others) will lead to legislation blocking or
> limiting our access to healthy
> life extension technologies.
> 
> Politicians - even in comparatively free countries
> like the US - already
> exert a great deal of control over access to
> medicine, what you can and
> can't do with your body, and what medical research
> is permitted.
> Unfortunately, this power is already being abused -
> as power always is - in
> many areas, including stem cell research and
> therapeutic cloning. It is a
> small leap from the present day functions of the FDA
> to a body that sets
> maximum life spans by enforcing restrictions on new
> anti-aging medical
> technologies.
> 
> George Dvorsky has written an excellent article on
> this topic that is
> currently posted at Betterhumans. I quote a fair
> amount in this post, but
> there is a good deal more where that came from - so
> read the whole thing.
> 
> ...
> 
> I consider myself open to ideas and alternative
> perspectives, but as I
> consider the arguments of the bio-Luddites and look
> deeper into their
> meaning, I have come to realize that the
> death-promoting propaganda campaign
> is more than just a battle for hearts and minds. I
> get the impression
> that—should radical life extension technologies
> become readily
> available—these detractors, some of whom have the
> ear of the President,
> would go much further than fighting a war of words
> in their attempt to
> ensure that we never gain mastery over our
> mortality.
> 
> ...
> 
> At times the bio-Luddites sound parochial and
> authoritarian, and at their
> worst they sound downright ideological and even
> totalitarian.
> 
> Indeed, as Kass has repeatedly stated, "the finitude
> of human life is a
> blessing for every individual, whether he knows it
> or not." And
> frighteningly, when asked by Brian Alexander, the
> author of Rapture: How
> Biotechnology Became the New Religion, if the
> government has a right to tell
> its citizens that they have to die, Fukuyama
> answered, "Yes, absolutely."
> 
> ...
> 
> And as for the bio-Luddite deathists, they're
> offering Americans the worst
> and most useless kind of ethics. It is an ethics
> without foundation in
> reality and devoid of pragmatic guidance and
> practical solutions. It simply
> doesn't do for the coming realities of 21st century
> life.
> 
> ...
> 
> I couldn't agree more, and it's a great shame that
> the field once known as
> medical ethics has degenerated into a coven of high
> profile bioethicists set
> on finding the best way to prevent new medicines
> from saving lives.
> 
> Squashing the opposition to serious anti-aging
> medical research will require
> supporters of healthy life extension to start our
> side of the coming battle
> early. We can't afford to wait for entrenched
> pro-death bioethicists to gain
> even greater influence over our overbearing,
> winner-takes-all governments.
> 
> Reason
> Founder, Longevity Meme
> 
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
>
http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo/extropy-chat


=====
Devon Fowler

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com