X-Message-Number: 23298 From: "Aschwin de Wolf" <> References: <> Subject: Re: "animal rights" people Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 10:26:55 -0500 > It seems to me that people who are really interested in the physiological > science as a test of feasibility of cryonics would not be disturbed by cat > experiments and animal rights people are probably going to have a hard time with > cryonics anyway. I would not be so sure about this. My partner and I are vegetarians and we met a lot of other cryonicists who are also vegetarians (for other than health reasons) and / or feel uncomfortable with some of the research in cryobiology. There is no contradiction between the two. The philosophy behind cryonics is not incompatible with the idea that animals should be treated with respect or have moral status. Some transhumanists (and libertarians) explore similar themes. Mike Darwin (a vegetarian himself according to Ed Regis) was quoted (as a response to the statement that cryonics is "gory" during the Dora Kent case): "A butcher shop is gory. People are actually eating dead animals, and they don't even need to do that." Ed Regis - Great Mambo Chicken & The Transhuman Condition, p. 103. Although I stipulated in my Alcor contract that no part of my (remaining) money should go to research on living animals I'm fully aware that this kind of research has brought great benefits to the understanding of the effects of freezing on animals- and humans (to put it mildly). But there is a difference between reluctantly tolerating something (and supporting serious alternatives) and being indifferent about it. The last thing the cryonics community needs is the reputation of sacrificing other forms of life to become immortal. It only reinforces the image of the "immoral immortalist" in classic mythology and popular fiction. I can think of a better motto for the cryonics community like Mike Perry's book title "Forever for All". We all agree that we don't want (future) animal rights activists to blow up the Cryonics Institute or Alcor. -aschwin Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=23298