Date sent: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 01:31:12 -0800 From: Paul Hughes <planetp@aci.net> Organization: Planet P To: extropians@extropy.com Subject: Escaping Planet of the Apes: was [MEDIA] Chicago Suntime's death penalty poll Send reply to: extropians@extropy.com
> "Joe E. Dees" wrote:
>
> > > > Not only that, but I would vote for a provisio that mandates that
> > > > executions are performed in a manner that allows essential organs
> > > > to be harvested, and that such harvesting is required, so that the
> > > > murderers, unable to restore the lives they took, may at least
> > > > partially pay in kind by sustaining the lives of others. Joe
> > >
> > > I'll re-quote Mike Lorrey on this topic:
> > >
> > > "Putting a profit motive before the state would cause the state to seek to
> > > expand the penalty to more and more crimes. Even, and especially, in a
> > > popular
> > > democracy, with an aging population, there will be public pressure to expand
> > > the
> > > penalty to more and more crimes."
> > >>
> > > Now, are you someone who claims to be an extropic individual while
> > > simultaneously advocating that a centralized state kill people for money?
> > >
> > > Paul Hughes
> > >
> > >
> > Rather, to employ more lucrative lawyer-hours, we will delay, and
> > even deny, justice, only to save the lives of those most likely to take
> > others prematurely, at the expense of indubitably innocent lives
> > which could be saved. Exactly which planet are you from? It can't
> > be the one the rest of us humans live on. I am a humanist and I
> > know them well; humanists are my friends. Paul, you're no humanist.
>
> Huh? Most prominent Humanist organizations, such as the Unitarian Church, are
> adamantly opposed to the Death Penalty. Your ignorance is embarrassing. Which
> planet are you on?
>
> But your right I'm no humanist, I'm a transhumanist! The need to kill and harvest
> organs of others guilty of murder are qualities of a domesticated primate species
> called humans (that of greed and vengeance), that I'm doing everything in my power
> to escape.
>
> Rather than see us continue a perpetual cycle of vengeance in the name of
> 'JUSTICE' (a slippery concept if there ever was one!), I'd rather see an emphasis
> on rehabilitation - something the US prison system has so far shown very little
> interest in. Since I don't expect the emotional intelligence of the average
> person to increase much in the near future, I've focused my efforts instead on
> getting off this primitive rock of savage domesticated primates and heading for
> the stars as soon as possible.
>
> Paul Hughes