X-Message-Number: 7147
From: Mark Feldman <>
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Subject: Re: Idle Speculation
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 23:47:30 -0600
Message-ID: <>
References: <565vhh$> <>

 wrote:
> 
>    I started a discussion on exactly this idea some months back. Since the
> government doesn't yet recognize cryoic preservaton as workable, there'd
> prpbably be little objection to a post-execution preservation, unless,
> like me, you both believe cryonics can work, and believe in capital
> punishment. (Some people should not be given a second chance at life.)

I disagree. In fact, I think EVERYONE who's sentenced to death should at
least be offerred the option to be suspended. Presumably in the future
we'll also have the technology to tap into people's memories. Like it or
not, innocent people have been sentenced to death in the past. I say we
suspend em until we know for sure....THEN we knock em off.

This does of course raise a few other problems. What if their behaviour
was the result of a mental illness which can be cured by the time
they're brought out of suspension? What then?

In order to address the question of criminals being suspended though, we
must look at capital punishment itself, and why it exists in some
societies. Do we do it to "punish" the criminal? Do we do it in an
attempt to discourage others from committing such offenses? Or do we
simply do it to once-and-for-all eliminate the threat they pose to other
human beings? The answer is probably a combination of these reasons. So
long as those first two reasons exist, you can expect to see opposition
to the idea.

Mark Feldman


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