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Immortality: Is It Ethical?


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Hey IBs,

This isn't exactly new news, people have been talking about the possibilities of immortality for thousands of years (anyone found that fountain of youth yet?!?!) and its been thoroughly researched in our modern times as well. Here is an article about a team headed by a Russian business tycoon who believe in the next 20 years, humans will be able to be immortal, and after that they

will be able to exists as a conscious being on the internet o_0

So what are your thoughts on the ethical implications of people being able to live nearly indefinitely, who will be able to get this service? How many people will take up permanent residence and not make room for incoming generations, does immortality defeat the purpose of life, and so on!

here is the link to the article: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-tycoon-wants-move-mind-machine-220242522.html

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Well sorry Luka, I am in a very busy moment now to read news article but I will give my views. My question is why people really want to become immortal. Well though this concept can be fascinating and cool, but in reality it is better not to alter the ways of nature. Well first of all, the current world population is more than 7 billion. If in future if those 7 billion people will be immortal ( of course the figures can rise), why we are causing burden to ecology. The existence of environment, natural resources,minerals and animals will be endangered. The planet will be over crowded. Pollution will increase. Humans will colonize other planets. (the existence and the behavior of the humans will endanger the the lives of many innocent life creatures.) Hence we are creating discomfort to all others just because of our selfish needs. Hence unethical.

Well another thing is who is interested in living a non stop life. Well anyways, people will be very bored if you ask me if they lead a non stop life. Hence many of them will end up in committing suicides ( which is unethical). Only people those who are attached to worldly pleasures will do such things. Seriously, those Russian scientists must have TOK pumped into their brains.

Being Immortal is not unethical, but the results or the after effects of it is surely is.

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Well sorry Luka, I am in a very busy moment now to read news article but I will give my views. My question is why people really want to become immortal. Well though this concept can be fascinating and cool, but in reality it is better not to alter the ways of nature. Well first of all, the current world population is more than 7 billion. If in future if those 7 billion people will be immortal ( of course the figures can rise), why we are causing burden to ecology. The existence of environment, natural resources,minerals and animals will be endangered. The planet will be over crowded. Pollution will increase. Humans will colonize other planets. (the existence and the behavior of the humans will endanger the the lives of many innocent life creatures.) Hence we are creating discomfort to all others just because of our selfish needs. Hence unethical.

Well another thing is who is interested in living a non stop life. Well anyways, people will be very bored if you ask me if they lead a non stop life. Hence many of them will end up in committing suicides ( which is unethical). Only people those who are attached to worldly pleasures will do such things. Seriously, those Russian scientists must have TOK pumped into their brains.

Being Immortal is not unethical, but the results or the after effects of it is surely is.

What is your view on imposing limits on people's reproduction then? Your basic argument is that if everyone is immortal (which isn't realistic) then we'd be over crowded and run out of materials etc. The same could be said about the world now. If the birth rate continues to rise then we'll need more material which puts other life at risk. Then if you move on to say that the world population would eventually plateau, you'd still have a problem because 1) as humans develop we generally expect to consume more so the strain on the earth would still increase and 2) it would also plateau because of what past generations have done with the resources on earth. Furthermore, if we colonize other planets, that would decrease the pressure on the Earth and its remaining population. What's unethical about that? Setting up life on an unoccupied planet is bad? (and we'd only be able to do that on Mars if we ever were able to)

Lastly, what's wrong with suicide?

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Well sorry Luka, I am in a very busy moment now to read news article but I will give my views. My question is why people really want to become immortal. Well though this concept can be fascinating and cool, but in reality it is better not to alter the ways of nature. Well first of all, the current world population is more than 7 billion. If in future if those 7 billion people will be immortal ( of course the figures can rise), why we are causing burden to ecology. The existence of environment, natural resources,minerals and animals will be endangered. The planet will be over crowded. Pollution will increase. Humans will colonize other planets. (the existence and the behavior of the humans will endanger the the lives of many innocent life creatures.) Hence we are creating discomfort to all others just because of our selfish needs. Hence unethical.

Well another thing is who is interested in living a non stop life. Well anyways, people will be very bored if you ask me if they lead a non stop life. Hence many of them will end up in committing suicides ( which is unethical). Only people those who are attached to worldly pleasures will do such things. Seriously, those Russian scientists must have TOK pumped into their brains.

Being Immortal is not unethical, but the results or the after effects of it is surely is.

What is your view on imposing limits on people's reproduction then? Your basic argument is that if everyone is immortal (which isn't realistic) then we'd be over crowded and run out of materials etc. The same could be said about the world now. If the birth rate continues to rise then we'll need more material which puts other life at risk. Then if you move on to say that the world population would eventually plateau, you'd still have a problem because 1) as humans develop we generally expect to consume more so the strain on the earth would still increase and 2) it would also plateau because of what past generations have done with the resources on earth. Furthermore, if we colonize other planets, that would decrease the pressure on the Earth and its remaining population. What's unethical about that? Setting up life on an unoccupied planet is bad? (and we'd only be able to do that on Mars if we ever were able to)

Lastly, what's wrong with suicide?

But see thats also an ethical issue, who gets to be the immortal? The rich and powerful, those that can muscle their way to the service. I don;t think thats an ethical method of choosing who gets to be immortal. better that no one gets the "honour" than a few select who can foot the massive bill.

Well for the births, mother nature can take care of its own... You know what happens when too many deer occupy one habitat? Either some of them don't get to the food, or the overcrowding promotes a disease. We like to think ourselves above nature's laws, but we aren't (seen Calgary lately?) so thats not as much of a worry. As well why would a cap on births be un-ethical in your opinion?

Seriously? Colonizing other planets? Lets literally keep our feet on the ground and find some realistic solutions.

There is the debate that suicide is ethical/ unethical so I'm not sure why you ask as if thats a objectively viewed issue.

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if we colonize other planets, that would decrease the pressure on the Earth and its remaining population. What's unethical about that? Setting up life on an unoccupied planet is bad? (and we'd only be able to do that on Mars if we ever were able to)

Well by the way, do you think that the humans are creating a paradise on earth with war,pollution and digging. Of course if humans happened to colonize on Mars, within a couple of weeks, that planet will be in bad shape as that of earth. Where humans goes, destruction follows.

But see thats also an ethical issue, who gets to be the immortal? The rich and powerful, those that can muscle their way to the service. I don;t think thats an ethical method of choosing who gets to be immortal. better that no one gets the "honour" than a few select who can foot the massive bill.

Well yes you are right such new invented things will go to rich and powerful people first but during the course of time, such technology will be available to common masses. Mobiles,tvs,cars where just like that. Only rich people used to have such things when they were newly invented but now they are available to the common masses.

Lastly, what's wrong with suicide?

Well it is a complete act of hopelessness. Suppose imagine a student committed suicide due to the pressure of the board exams, do you think it is justified. Think about their parents. How hard they must have raised him and loved him and in the end do they expect to get such sort of treatment just because of their children foolhardiness.Exams are small things in life but before committing did they think how will their parents feel? Don't you think that by doing is act all this burden to passed to their parents. Same goes to unemployed men or women who are facing struggles. I do understand how worse their sufferings are but why do such things. Suicide is just like quitting a game in the middle way. Will anyone like it? Humans are gifted with intelligence to stand and fight up for their rights. If you ask me suicide is a selfish and thoughtless way of repaying your loved ones.

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But see thats also an ethical issue, who gets to be the immortal? The rich and powerful, those that can muscle their way to the service. I don;t think thats an ethical method of choosing who gets to be immortal. better that no one gets the "honour" than a few select who can foot the massive bill.

Well for the births, mother nature can take care of its own... You know what happens when too many deer occupy one habitat? Either some of them don't get to the food, or the overcrowding promotes a disease. We like to think ourselves above nature's laws, but we aren't (seen Calgary lately?) so thats not as much of a worry. As well why would a cap on births be un-ethical in your opinion?

Seriously? Colonizing other planets? Lets literally keep our feet on the ground and find some realistic solutions.

There is the debate that suicide is ethical/ unethical so I'm not sure why you ask as if thats a objectively viewed issue.

I don't think 'who gets to be immortal?' is currently an ethical issue. It'd be expensive so those that can afford it should get it. It'd be classed as a luxury rather than a thing that can be seen as a necessity (like health care) so I don't really think that debate exists at the moment.

I never mentioned my opinion on putting a cap on births. Secondly, I was simply responding to a point he made about colonising other planets.

I asked about suicide because he made the assertion that its unethical in order to support his main point. Did you read his post?

Lastly, what's wrong with suicide?

Well it is a complete act of hopelessness. Suppose imagine a student committed suicide due to the pressure of the board exams, do you think it is justified. Think about their parents. How hard they must have raised him and loved him and in the end do they expect to get such sort of treatment just because of their children foolhardiness.Exams are small things in life but before committing did they think how will their parents feel? Don't you think that by doing is act all this burden to passed to their parents. Same goes to unemployed men or women who are facing struggles. I do understand how worse their sufferings are but why do such things. Suicide is just like quitting a game in the middle way. Will anyone like it? Humans are gifted with intelligence to stand and fight up for their rights. If you ask me suicide is a selfish and thoughtless way of repaying your loved ones.

Well, it's justifiable to the person if they feel the stress is high enough to end their lives. What else are you looking for? Someone to go to court to ask if they can kill themselves? If we allow people to be autonomous then surely they have the right to end their own life. Your life isn't governed by the government or your parents.

It may make the parents sad but if you're going to use happiness of people to determine whether people should commit suicide or not, then the sadness of the one person living would out weigh the happiness of the parents. You could even say that making the person continue a hopeless life for your own happiness is selfish too. (I have no idea what your unemployed example has to do with this topic).

Lastly, if you want to relate it back to your initial statement about how everyone will be bored so they'll commit suicide, then really, this 'game' is more single player than multiplayer so no one cares if they leave early.

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But see thats also an ethical issue, who gets to be the immortal? The rich and powerful, those that can muscle their way to the service. I don;t think thats an ethical method of choosing who gets to be immortal. better that no one gets the "honour" than a few select who can foot the massive bill.

Well for the births, mother nature can take care of its own... You know what happens when too many deer occupy one habitat? Either some of them don't get to the food, or the overcrowding promotes a disease. We like to think ourselves above nature's laws, but we aren't (seen Calgary lately?) so thats not as much of a worry. As well why would a cap on births be un-ethical in your opinion?

Seriously? Colonizing other planets? Lets literally keep our feet on the ground and find some realistic solutions.

There is the debate that suicide is ethical/ unethical so I'm not sure why you ask as if thats a objectively viewed issue.

I don't think 'who gets to be immortal?' is currently an ethical issue. It'd be expensive so those that can afford it should get it. It'd be classed as a luxury rather than a thing that can be seen as a necessity (like health care) so I don't really think that debate exists at the moment.

I never mentioned my opinion on putting a cap on births. Secondly, I was simply responding to a point he made about colonising other planets.

I asked about suicide because he made the assertion that its unethical in order to support his main point. Did you read his post?

Lastly, what's wrong with suicide?

Well it is a complete act of hopelessness. Suppose imagine a student committed suicide due to the pressure of the board exams, do you think it is justified. Think about their parents. How hard they must have raised him and loved him and in the end do they expect to get such sort of treatment just because of their children foolhardiness.Exams are small things in life but before committing did they think how will their parents feel? Don't you think that by doing is act all this burden to passed to their parents. Same goes to unemployed men or women who are facing struggles. I do understand how worse their sufferings are but why do such things. Suicide is just like quitting a game in the middle way. Will anyone like it? Humans are gifted with intelligence to stand and fight up for their rights. If you ask me suicide is a selfish and thoughtless way of repaying your loved ones.

Well, it's justifiable to the person if they feel the stress is high enough to end their lives. What else are you looking for? Someone to go to court to ask if they can kill themselves? If we allow people to be autonomous then surely they have the right to end their own life. Your life isn't governed by the government or your parents.

It may make the parents sad but if you're going to use happiness of people to determine whether people should commit suicide or not, then the sadness of the one person living would out weigh the happiness of the parents. You could even say that making the person continue a hopeless life for your own happiness is selfish too. (I have no idea what your unemployed example has to do with this topic).

Lastly, if you want to relate it back to your initial statement about how everyone will be bored so they'll commit suicide, then really, this 'game' is more single player than multiplayer so no one cares if they leave early.

I knew that you would argue back life that, no surprise because I wasn't specific. Well Euthanasia and suicide is completely different. Well of you are suffering due to physical damage, no doubt you can opt for that way. But I have never heard that it is right to take your life just because you failed in exams, or being unemployed or being mistreated. These are the obstacles that one face in life. Life is not a bed of roses. If you think that people will commit suicide for now and then do you think that is perfectly alright? Well these problems can be solved unlike which we suffer from physical and other damages. One must be brave and bold to face this.

And you are saying that we are rightful owners of life, so we can do anything to it. Fine, suppose you have 1 Billion dollars note and you just chuck in garbage because saying I can do anything because I am the owner. Do you think it is wise? similarly you are talking about taking life which is absolutely a foolish idea. Of course their sufferings will be great but they must overcome it ( except some physical and permanent sufferings). Losers will quit and winners will stay. That is game of life.

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I knew that you would argue back life that, no surprise because I wasn't specific. Well Euthanasia and suicide is completely different. Well of you are suffering due to physical damage, no doubt you can opt for that way. But I have never heard that it is right to take your life just because you failed in exams, or being unemployed or being mistreated. These are the obstacles that one face in life. Life is not a bed of roses. If you think that people will commit suicide for now and then do you think that is perfectly alright? Well these problems can be solved unlike which we suffer from physical and other damages. One must be brave and bold to face this.

And you are saying that we are rightful owners of life, so we can do anything to it. Fine, suppose you have 1 Billion dollars note and you just chuck in garbage because saying I can do anything because I am the owner. Do you think it is wise? similarly you are talking about taking life which is absolutely a foolish idea. Of course their sufferings will be great but they must overcome it ( except some physical and permanent sufferings). Losers will quit and winners will stay. That is game of life.

Be careful here. I never said that it was right to commit suicide. Saying there's little objectively wrong with it and saying it's a good thing to do are two different statements. They aren't all that different. One has the condition of poor health and the other has a condition of hopelessness. While the latter has the opportunity to change it is still up to the person to decide whether they want to end their life. While most would rather they didn't commit suicide, I don't quite see how the conditions they face makes it wrong. Maybe not the best course of action but I don't see how you can justify it being morally wrong.

I don't think this analogy is fair. Depending on how liberal you are, you could argue that yes she's allowed to throw it away. What if I spent $250 on a rock? Would you say that's morally wrong? Now, please keep on topic. I'm not discussing whether these actions are 'wise' or not. Lastly, why must they overcome it? You're not the one dictating their life at the end of the day.

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I knew that you would argue back life that, no surprise because I wasn't specific. Well Euthanasia and suicide is completely different. Well of you are suffering due to physical damage, no doubt you can opt for that way. But I have never heard that it is right to take your life just because you failed in exams, or being unemployed or being mistreated. These are the obstacles that one face in life. Life is not a bed of roses. If you think that people will commit suicide for now and then do you think that is perfectly alright? Well these problems can be solved unlike which we suffer from physical and other damages. One must be brave and bold to face this.

And you are saying that we are rightful owners of life, so we can do anything to it. Fine, suppose you have 1 Billion dollars note and you just chuck in garbage because saying I can do anything because I am the owner. Do you think it is wise? similarly you are talking about taking life which is absolutely a foolish idea. Of course their sufferings will be great but they must overcome it ( except some physical and permanent sufferings). Losers will quit and winners will stay. That is game of life.

Be careful here. I never said that it was right to commit suicide. Saying there's little objectively wrong with it and saying it's a good thing to do are two different statements. They aren't all that different. One has the condition of poor health and the other has a condition of hopelessness. While the latter has the opportunity to change it is still up to the person to decide whether they want to end their life. While most would rather they didn't commit suicide, I don't quite see how the conditions they face makes it wrong. Maybe not the best course of action but I don't see how you can justify it being morally wrong.

I don't think this analogy is fair. Depending on how liberal you are, you could argue that yes she's allowed to throw it away. What if I spent $250 on a rock? Would you say that's morally wrong? Now, please keep on topic. I'm not discussing whether these actions are 'wise' or not. Lastly, why must they overcome it? You're not the one dictating their life at the end of the day.

I think your views are clashing with mine. No problem it happens and though I don't agree with your points completely I think we are drifting away from the main topic :D

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