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

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