Count me in on that Max, I've been doing work on this already in the
green/anarchism activist lists. Why don't we set up an online database.
I can do one at exi-freedom if you want, its easy to set up. You might
want to set up a special group at egroups (now Yahoo) for members to
contribute to automatically.
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
> >
> > http://www.agingresearch.org
> >
> > and check out their superlative Scientific Advisory Board. Several
> > 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
> > URL: http://www.grg.org -- LA-GRG Mailing List
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