X-Message-Number: 5766
From: John de Rivaz <>
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Subject: Re: Virtue of suffering (was Donaldson MR and Miss Hindley)
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 10:39:59 +0100
Message-ID: <>
References: <> <>

In article: <>   (Brad Templeton) 
writes:
> As far as I am concerned cryonics organizations should stay as far as
> possible from any attempt to suspend before legal death, *including*
> legal assisted suicide, should it ever be allowed.

You are probably right, but

> You just have to look at the debates over assisted suicide to realize
> that people are against it even when the patients face painful, lingering
                                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> death, and suspect the motives of the doctors and all those involved.

It just goes to show how mob rule is still uppermost in human society and 
really we have a very long way to go indeed to escape out evolutionary 
heritage.

But we must not give up because of the impossibility of the task. You 
almost almost say it is impossible that we have got so far when you 
*really* look at how the rest of the animals on Earth live, hunting and 
stalking each other for food and doing nothing else with their lives. 
Certainly if you could try and explain to a caveman what we have to-day he 
would say it was impossible. The very idea of eating something for pleasure 
in a restaurant would be incomprehensible to him, for example.

We have used concepts such as law and government to try and curb our 
inherited violent natures, but regretfully organisation produces a new form 
of violence - conscription, wars and genocide. Maybe government as we 
know it isn't really the answer, and with increasing ability in new forms 
of communication, such as the Internet, alternatives to government can be 
found that do not give rise to conscription, wars etc as a side effect.

We have achieved the "impossible". We will go on achieving it if we try. 
Don't give up now!

-- 
Sincerely,     ****************************************       
               * Publisher of        Longevity Report *
John de Rivaz  *                     Fractal Report   *
               *          details on request          *
               ****************************************
In the information age, sharing can increase world wealth enormously,
because giving information does not decrease your information.
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