X-Message-Number: 28312 Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 10:54:24 -0600 From: "Anthony ." <> Subject: minorities, animal welfare ------=_Part_90790_25670170.1155315264122 Content-Disposition: inline > Message #28311 > From: > Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:17:15 EDT > Subject: [Cryonics_Institute] Re: First Hamster, Pet Preservation a plus > (pet rant!) > > (Also, BTW, a disproportionate number of individuals who are > childfree, have alternate sexual orientation, and who are male > computer/software > professionals.) You also forgot to mention the high number of athiests and libertarians. It makes sense that minority groups will gravitate towards a minority practice - excluded as some cryonicists are from mainstream values and practices. > (Not dissimilar to the issues related to a call I took yesterday, > a client > who is 96 and in terrible health just had a quadruple bypass, > on government > expense. (!). Jesus on a stick, does it make sense to spend 35 or 40 > thousand > dollars to give this woman a few more weeks of existence in her assisted > living facility?! ) The medical establishment and public opinion are still driven by saving life at all costs - this is why euthanasia is still under debate, why palliative care is so poor, why doctors will put patients through horrible "life-saving" procedures even though they know the extra life is only a few days or weeks (see, for e.g. Dr. Nuland's book "How We Die" especially his personal confessions regarding medical paternalism). Unfortunately, there is probably a long way to go before people opt for less costly cryonics which will preserve them in better health, compared to the long drawing out of the dying process. > I would like to put my vote in...here it is: A big "Say YES to pets!" Thanks Rudi, I agree with your enthusiasm and support for pet cryopreservation. It is good to know that so many cryonicists are able to love an animal who is not a human. I hope that cryonicists are able to look beyond their own relationships with their animals - who we know feel pain, misery, and fear, as well as love and comfort. Looking beyond our pets means looking to the other animals who suffer at human hands. A cow, sheep, or pig have as much capacity for fear and pain as the dogs, horses, and cats we love. We do not need to eat meat, there are alternatives that are an improvement on meat, and these animals should not suffer for our pleasure. In other countries dogs, horses, and cats are eaten regularly (cat's may be still alive while they are skinned and dropped into boiling water to drown, dog's are muzzled and "hog-tied" - which breaks their legs - prior to being eaten). Eating animals is part of the prevailing attitude that they exist for our purposes alone. Many pet and animals lovers understand that these beings exist in their own right and are deserving of our protection and respect. Please treat other animals like you treat your pets. The animal you eat suffered and screamed before it died. In relation to this, some people are trying to prevent the extinctions we are causing by preserving a complete genetic sample of every living thing they can. I once thought it might be good for cryonics providers to try to aquire the bodies of nearly extinct species and preserve them, but the cost is probably prohibitive and I doubt there'd be much will to do it. http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=/news/news_single.html?id%3D5821 Responding to Thursday's airline terrorist plot, the Lifeboat Foundation<http://lifeboat.com/ex/main>has raised its GETAS (Global Existential Threat Advisory System) alert level to ELEVATED, its first raised alert. The GETAS system <http://lifeboat.com/ex/getas> tracks the probability of "existential risks<http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0194.html>," which could threaten humanity and intelligent life with extinction, such as nuclear holocaust. "The Global Existential Threat Advisory System intends to provide a comprehensive and effective means to disseminate information regarding existential threats to the world," said Philippe Van Nedervelde, Lifeboat Foundation's Chief International Evangelist. A free GETAS alert email service <http://lifeboat.com/ex/getas> is available. The Lifeboat Foundation is also looking for comments on its NanoShield proposal<http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0685.html>, dealing with future threats from grey goo and other nanoweapons. The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization, dedicated to ensuring that humanity safely adopts increasingly powerful technologies, including genetics/biotechnology, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards a technological Singularity. Anthony ------=_Part_90790_25670170.1155315264122 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=28312