From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Tue Jul 29 2003 - 19:00:16 MDT
On Mon, 28 Jul 2003, Hal Finney wrote:
> P.S. Another well known example of instinctive moral judgements that
> conflict with those held by many of us is Leon Kass's article, The
> Wisdom of Repugnance, about his instinctive discomfort with reproductive
> technology. How can we know who is right, if it's our guts against his?
Interestingly, there was an interview, on PBS "Now", between Bill
Moyers and Leon Kass a few days ago. The URL for the transcript of
the July 25th 2003 interview appears to be:
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_kass.html
Having watched Kass was a bit more revealing than reading Kass.
Points:
a) He seems to have been raised in a moderately secular environment
(either Jewish or completely nonreligious).
b) He seems to have derived his positions from a "search for meaning".
c) He does *not* seem to be vigorously opposed to stem cell research.
(He clearly states that stem cells may provide cures for human
diseases.)
d) He is somewhat opposed to destroying embryos to create new stem
cell lines. (He views it as unnecessary at this time -- this
is a position that might be sharply debated by some biologists.)
e) He is opposed to cloning. (He views it as humans taking technology
too far and for little reason/purpose -- justifications are a bit fuzzy
here.)
f) He is definitely opposed to lifespan extension. He definitely feels
that human beings *should* die. Again, his reasons are rather
fuzzy (to allow the renewal of the species, to eliminate jaded
perspectives of the old folks, etc.)
I would consider that his perspectives are most dangerous from the
perspective of where his "search for meaning" lead him. It may relate
somewhat to the "revelation mentality" ("I had a death defying
experience and I was saved"; "This came to me in a dream", etc.) ==
I am not sure. But from the interview it seemed that his perspective
was invented and not inherited/derived/etc.
Unfortunately he comes across as a very educated person with respect to
scientific principles so one has to ask *how* do people "crossover"
from the principles of "science" to the principles of "faith".
(I believe it may have to do with the desire, or more probably,
the *need* to create meaning (or purpose) in ones life. But this
is just my opinion.)
However, if the interview accurately represents his positions, Kass
is most dangerous because he honestly believes that *you* (each and
every one of us) *should* die. Due to that perspective he may trump even
my hand among the players of "genocidal mania poker".
Robert
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