June 02, 2006
A surefire inductee into the Dopey Arguments Hall of Fame. Talking about the possibllity of greatly extending the human lifespan, here's bioethicist Daniel Callahan:
For one thing, he said, doubling life spans won’t solve any of our current social problems.
"We have war, poverty, all sorts of issues around, and I don't think any of them would be at all helped by having people live longer," Callahan said in a recent telephone interview.
I admit to a twinge of regret that I can't bring myself to make this argument. It sure would be useful on occasion. Raise taxes? Nope, we shouldn't do it, we'd still have war and poverty. Extend Sarbanes-Oxley and McCain-Feingold? Nope, war and poverty, blah blah.