X-Message-Number: 18508
From: "Mark Plus" <>
Subject: The pro-death coalition
Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2002 09:58:52 -0800

Robert Ettinger asks:


>Message #18500
From: 
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2002 10:00:41 EST
Subject: Soreff, Kass

>Jeff Soreff mentions:

>> >the head of the US's "bioethics" council,
> >Leon Kass, is on record as opposing lifespan extending research.

>Could we have a citation on this, please?

Virginia Postrel has written quite a lot about Leon Kass and his retrograde 
views.  E.g., link to,

http://www.dynamist.com/forbes/prodeath.html

I've noticed from news accounts I've read about Kass that he seems impressed 
by the bad consequences of biotechnology presented in arbitrarily 
constructed fictional stories, for example, Aldous Huxley's _Brave New 
World_.  (Though I don't see what's so horrible about BNW, to be honest.)  I 
would have thought that adults are generally able to distinguish real from 
make-believe characters and situations, but apparently not Kass.

His choice of literary warnings seems conveniently silent about the evils of 
"borg" technology, however.  Otherwise what would he have to say about Dick 
Cheney's implanted defibrillator and Rush Limbaugh's cochlear implant?

Mark Plus

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