X-Message-Number: 31454
From: "John de Rivaz" <>
References: <>
Subject: Re: Alex Doherty reprinted posting
Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2009 12:25:01 -0000


Doherty seems to make a very good case for everyone killing themselves in order 
to cease to be a burden on civilisation or indeed the planet. Activities such as
wearing clothes, living in houses and so on are just as unnatural as cryonics. 
And what about medicine, surgery etc. Should the state or insurance systems 
spend thousands on people needing heart surgery? Probably not, according to 
Doherty's argument. Unfortunately pro-death movements appear in history invoking
logic to exterminate sick people that require resources. They result in 
enormous destruction and violence to defeat them, but they are defeated.


But there is something beyond this logic. Many of the great religions value 
life. Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead and told his followers to do 
likewise. Even if this is just a myth, it is a very powerful one and accepted by
a huge number of people as being "a good thing". 


What Doherty described as "consumerist fundamentalism" is doing just that thing 
that Jesus did -- healing the sick and making "the (nearly) dead" easier to 
raise by future technology.

-- 
Sincerely, John de Rivaz:  http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including
Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley
Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy,  Nomad .. and
more

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