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Politics : Long Live The Death Penalty! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Fangorn who wrote (363)	1/16/2003 10:43:14 AM
From: louisebaltimore	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 828

Re suspended animation, yes I'm aware that it's not a reality at this point in time. I said as much in my post. However, I see money isn't the only problem ..... From the Sunday London Times August 6, 1998 Frozen baboons returned to life by Lois Rogers Medical Correspondent SCIENTISTS have unlocked the secret of suspended animation by successfully reviving baboons hours after their bodies were packed into crates of ice. The breakthrough, which holds huge implications for the battle against disease and ageing, will allow humans to preserve their ice-cold bodies in suspended animation and wake up years later in the same physical condition. It has aroused the interest of space scientists investigating the possibility of interstellar travel, allowing human exploration of galaxies many light years away. Military clinicians are also attracted by the prospect of allowing critically injured troops to be near-frozen on the battlefield and preserved for later treatment. The key to the technology is Hextend, a revolutionary plasma replacement fluid which is poured into the body through a vein in the upper thigh as blood is drained and the anaesthetised body is cooled to 1C. As the clear fluid permeates the tissues, it prevents the deterioration caused by extreme lowering of body temperature. The results from the baboon studies, carried out at Biotime, a California research company, were announced at the annual meeting of the American Association of Anti-Ageing Medicine. Hal Sternberg, Biotime's head of research, said work on the mechanisms of animal hibernation had provided much of the basic information on suspended animation. One type of North American frog can partially freeze its body while it shuts down during the winter months. Hamsters have been kept alive at 1-2C with no heartbeat in Biotime laboratories for up to seven hours before being successfully rewarmed. The long-term objective is to add freeze-protectant chemicals to the Hextend solution so human bodies can be stored at -196C, the temperature of liquid nitrogen. The principal barrier, however, is popular opinion. "It is like the public attitude to early organ transplants," said Sternberg. "Although everyone will love us when we announce we have reversibly frozen a human being, at the moment this area is not considered socially acceptable. "There is a limit to how far people think you should go to save a life: but we already have children being born from frozen embryos. If you are extending the beginning of life, why shouldn't you also extend it later on?" Sternberg and his colleagues expect to use their new techniques to put themselves into long-term hibernation while they await the development of life-extending techniques to cure and prevent cancer, heart failure and Alzheimer's disease. Doctors believe the technique can immediately be used in complex surgery, where best results can be obtained by cooling the body to a level which would otherwise cause brain damage. Clinical trials of Hextend led by Michael Mythen, a consultant anaesthetist who worked on the project in America, are to begin at University College hospital, London, this year. It will be used in complex orthopaedic, gynaecological and stomach operations where there is a danger of catastrophic blood loss and where better results can be obtained at low temperatures. Kelvin Brockbank, a British-born scientist in South Carolina who has received funding from the American government for his research work in the allied field of preserving transplant organs, said deep-freezing of human tissue would be possible within a year. "There will be a whole range of applications for the technology," he said. "It will be up to people to decide how to use them." Hopefully, the technology will be developed before we finish trashing this planet and find that we have to move. ;-)

To: Fangorn who wrote (363)	1/16/2003 11:04:47 AM
From: louisebaltimore	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 828

So, you agree that those who do kill again would be deterred by execution. Your point just dissolved. Please look up the word "deter" in the dictionary. And execution is no more "pre-emptive" an action than giving him life without parole. Agree. So what? Acts of passion or insanity are seldom if ever punished with death making this a strawman argument. First degree murder is the only crime subject to DP in most jurisdictions and first degree murder requires prior intent. Acts of passion and insanity lack this prior intent. My argument was addressing what motivates someone to commit murder and what, if anything, deters them from doing so. Even if the DP applied in these cases, it wouldn't alter things. Lack of conscience in no way bars logical thought. One who murders is obviously somewhat deficient in conscience but may be acting in a very logical way. The loan shark who kills a delinquent borrower to encourage other "clients" to pay up is being logical. OK, agree about the logic part. What I'm trying to say is that the conscience-less killer isn't likely to be deterred by the realization that the DP may be applied.