Striving to Find a Middle Ground that Incorporates Both Deathism and the Urge to Radical Life Extension

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A possibly interesting position is put forth in this blog post, an attempt to merge a package of right to end of life decisions and acceptance of death with the urge to extend healthy life through biotechnology - an argument that the present cultural debate that places these two things in opposition is misguided: "People who try to fend off death are being selfish, are in denial, and are pouring money down the drain for cockamamy schemes to preserve their frozen heads for some fingers-crossed future, which will never arrive. At the same time, we shouldn't let people die, particularly (and ironically) if they really want to. Choosing death is untenable. It's against nature. No, death is good only when death decides it's ready for you. Or so go the arguments of many who oppose anti-aging technology. But just because we accept death as good and necessary, that doesn't necessarily mean we have to say the same about aging. Can we argue for anti-aging technology, for 2,000-year lifespans of perpetual youth, and admit death can be good at the same time? Not only can we; we must. We can accept death yet also seek to live vastly longer, healthier, and happier. Death is good, but so too is a long, long, long life. We can attain long lives of quality by rejecting extreme 'life-saving measures,' embracing euthanasia, and accepting that there are just some things we cannot cure. Death has got to be our closest kept enemy if we want to be ageless. Baffling as it may seem, wanting to live to be a thousand years old is inextricably connected to the ability to decide when it's time to give up the ghost." I can't say as I agree with the rush to incorporate acceptance of death, but I'm certainly very much on the side of the right to choose when and how you die. One of the many great and horrible cruelties in our present culture is the sadistic enforcement of prohibition against the choice of euthanasia - not least because it is the source of most of the challenges and costs that attend the organization of a successful cryopreservation.

Link: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/01/06/aging-is-our-enemy-death-is-our-ally/