Re: Fwd: [la-grg] Alliance for Aging Research Political Manifesto

From: John Marlow (johnmarlow@gmx.net)
Date: Thu Feb 08 2001 - 22:31:22 MST


Defies belief, don't it?

jm

On 8 Feb 2001, at 10:18, Max More wrote:

Forwarded with permission. This is interesting in the context of our
discussion about keeping track of anti-extropic public figures and
events. I'm building up a "little black book". :-) One project I
have in mind is to systematically track these folks and have a
process in place for responding to them.

Max


    Date: Tue, 06 Feb 2001 21:19:18 -0800
    To: la-grg@wildwebservices.com
    From: "L. Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D." <scoles@grg.org>
    Subject: [la-grg] Alliance for Aging Research Political Manifesto
    
    -- To Members and Friends of the Gerontology Research Group:
    
    The Alliance for Aging Research of Washington, D.C. has just
    published 
    a two-page manifesto in the latest issue of JAAM [*]. Visit their
    website at 
    
    url"h
    ttp://www.agingresearch. 
    and check out their superlative Scientific Advisory Board. Seveal
    members were
    members of the Wasington, D.C. Gerontology Research Group in 1995-6.
    
    The article begins with three sad quotations...
    
    ... Audrey Chapman, Director of Science and Human Rights at
    the AAAS said
    in US News and World Report, "It is evil to focus energy on trying to
    live longer than
    80 years when many poor people now don't live past age 40."
    
    The Rev. Richard J. Neuhaus of the Institute of Religion and
    Public Life criticized
    what he called "the search for immortality as a pagan and sub-
    Christian quest driven
    by the essentially amoral and mindless dynamic of the technological
    imperative joined 
    to an ignoble fear of death."
    
    Dr. Daniel Callahan, Biomedical Ethicist at the Hasting
    Center in New York said,
    in The New England Journal of Medicine, "We can't ban this
    [longevity] research, but 
    we can make it socially despicable -- like nuclear testing, we can
    decide that we don't 
    want to do it. People at age 65 have lived long enough to experience
    the typical range 
    of human possibilities and aspirations: to work, to learn, to love,
    to procreate, and to 
    see one's children grow up and become independent adults. No special
    effort should 
    be made to help them live longer. In fact, the NIH budget for cancer
    research should be 
    reduced."
    
    We of the LA-GRG believe that we are not only justified but
    are obligated to do 
    whatever we can to extend, not shorten, human life. We cannot afford
    to dismiss these 
    apologists as harmless. Their titles give them ready access to the
    media, and they are 
    capable of stirring irrational fear in society at large (read
    Congress). Therefore, they 
    do pose a threat to the pursuit of medical knowledge that will help
    millions of people, 
    including ourselves, live healthy, vital lives, postponing
    devastating and costly diseases 
    like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Cancer, and Heart Disease, within the
    period of our own 
    lifetimes.
    
    Best regards,
    
    Steve Coles
    _____________
    * "Political Issue -- Taking Sides in the Great Longevity Debate:
    Critics of Aging 
    Research Are Missing the Point," JAAM, Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 447-8
    (Winter 2000). 
    L. Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Founder
    Los Angeles Gerontology Research Group
    Uurl"http://www.grg.org --
    LA-GRG Mailing Li



John Marlow



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