X-Message-Number: 7098
Date:  Thu, 31 Oct 96 12:25:55 
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Euthanasia, Terror Management

J.V. Coetzee, #7087, said:

>I think effective pain management should supercede euthanasia. Why the
>stress on euthanasia and not pain management. The latter is more
>humanet and avoid mistakes and abuse. We are hopefull to be awaken
>from cryostasis but unable to project that feeling to the management
>of pain. Euthanasia draws the attention away from pain management and
>let the medical culture of today off the hook. J.C.

I'm all for pain management, but also for allowing individual 
choices in the matter of whether and how to terminate one's life. 
What bothers me about the anti-euthanasia people is that they would 
forbid the exercise of individual freedom in this regard. It may be 
that "practically all" cases could be handled through pain management 
rather than active euthanasia. Still, a principle is at stake here. 
Do I have the right, if I so wish, to choose a certain option, or 
must the State intervene to forbid me this right, should I try to 
exercise it? For cryonicists this has a special significance 
too--unfortunately--because we want to be frozen when it's time to be 
frozen from a biological standpoint, and not when our brain might be 
hopelessly damaged by a terminal disease. 
Unfortunately, the legal establishment is constrained to view 
premortem cryonic suspension as "assisted suicide" so we would have 
to have "euthanasia" rights to proceed.

The fight in Australia and elsewhere over euthanasia seems to be an 
interesting vindication of the Terror Management theory that has been 
getting attention here lately. (The comments of Tim Freeman I think have 
been especially illuminating as to why there haven't been more 
cryonics signups.) Clearly, euthanasia clashes with many people's 
terror management strategy. You might wonder though why people aren't 
willing to let someone else choose euthanasia if that's what they 
want. Presumably even permitting this choice threatens the cultural 
anxiety buffer of someone who wouild not choose this for 
themselves--the existence of competing worldviews calls each one into 
question. People do not simply want to "live and let live" (or "let 
die" as here) but wish deep down that everyone shared their 
worldview. Institutions such as religious groups that are 
committed to a particular worldview will naturally try to make their 
view prevail as far as possible, even if we no longer have the 
Inquisition. 


Mike Perry

http://www.alcor.org


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