Actually malchiah I am not comfortable with this part either for the record.
--armrha, strange mood today...
I should hope immortals destablize all culture.
I don't think it is even likely as the real threat longevity presents of a slippery slope are global societies becoming rigid, too homogenized. But it is hard to credit stagnation as a looming threat. Clonote Wars are much more sinister sounding.
It should be possible and certainly no harder than now to cohabit this world if we all have a common sense of the *sanctity* for life, especially for that of the presently living even more than *potential* and hypothetical ones and that we *value* the difference.
In fact if cultures felt their chosen existence less threatened they might war less and as the members achieve longevity cultures survive represented by the individual members but here we are discussing therapeutic cloning not the conduct of immortal beings, which it is quite fair to say we still aren't.
armrha says:
I'd say it'd be perfectly ethical to produce full clones of ourselves to be harvested for medical purposes. The clones would, of course, be brain-damaged or genetically altered to never have anything more than the bare minimum autonomous nervous response neccessary to run their bodies...
That which can be done will be done.
Isn’t that perhaps the slippery slope that Bioconservative fears?
Too late actually but I suggest it's very fair to discuss what we should do far more than just what we shouldn't. Armrha is entitled to his opinion but at least he is talking openly about his position especially since many can also openly disagree.
Would we condone such an effort as a society, let alone this organization?
I doubt it.
Could everyone agree to change their mind someday?
Of course the possibility of abusive conduct won't go away even if many of these procedures are proscribed by law, in fact it could be considered more attractive to a society like ours so indulgent of its wealth that like its support for organized vice discovers a lucrative market for illicit biotech that sells better than the most expensive illegal drugs today. Will banning all such tech make it stop if the *science* is prevented from going forward?
How far back do you want to repeal the Renaissance?
How much of a good thing is enough to force us into a self imposed dark age?
That is the slippery slope I think many of us fear.
Edited by Lazarus Long, 12 January 2005 - 12:50 PM.