X-Message-Number: 18100
From: "Mark Plus" <>
Subject: Fwd: FUTURIST UPDATE December 2001
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2001 18:42:31 -0800

>From: 
>To: undisclosed-recipients:;
>Subject: FUTURIST UPDATE December 2001
>Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 17:46:57 -0500 (EST)
>
>***************************************************
>FUTURIST UPDATE
>News & Previews from the World Future Society
>December 2001
>***************************************************
>
>IN THIS ISSUE:
>* Immortality: Pro and Con
[snip]

>
>IMMORTALITY: PRO AND CON
>
>Increasing the human life-span by 10 years could add as many as 2.5
>billion more people to the world's population. Increasing average life
>expectancy to 180 years over the next century would overwhelm the world
>with an eventual population of 35 billion, argues Donald B. Louria,
>M.D., of the New Jersey Medical School.

Well, new generations will have to get out of the way to make room for 
immortals!


>
>On the other hand, curing the diseases and disabilities that keep us
>from reaching or extending our potential life-spans could be an
>enormous economic boon, saving on medical expenses and insurance
>pay-outs and adding years of human productivity. One study found that
>reducing death rates from either cancer or heart disease in the United
>States would be worth some $10 trillion, notes Ronald M. Klatz, M.D.,
>president of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine.

This prudential-utilitarian sort of argument fortunately may prove more 
effective in winning "official" support for radical life extension than the 
purely moral one, that a life rightly lived can never be rightly terminated. 
  People understand tangible incentives like saving money better than they 
do abstractions like ethical norms.

>
>The pros and cons of antiaging medicine and the efforts to achieve
>virtual immortality are argued eloquently by Louria and Klatz in the
>January-February 2002 issue of THE FUTURIST, mailed to subscribers
>after December 12. ORDER: http://www.wfs.org/futuristorder.htm.
>
>Dr. Klatz will also be speaking at WorldView 2002: Futures Unlimited!
>in Philadelphia next July. For the latest conference information, go to
>http://www.wfs.org/2002mainpg.htm




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