Ethics of Immortality

Graphic by Sidney Harris  from American Scientist

In these current days of a world-wide pandemic of the deadly COVID-19 virus infection
and as of the origination of this blog thread there is concern as to how long testing for an
effective vaccine will take, the above image from the book "What's So Funny About
Science"  from American Scientist can set a worthy ethical and philosophic topic  to start.
Should science and the population of our planet ever think of creating a "vaccine" that would
or even attempted to "could" lead to human immortality?

If so, would the current space flight experiments provide the necessary movement from our
current planet Earth to elsewhere in space which at first will become less crowded?
Silly issue, immortality?  What might the reasons be against this science breakthrough?

Hopefully, the vaccine for COVID-19 will be available and tested and found effective
soon to bring this ongoing pandemic to an end.  But the question regarding immortality
does "live on".   ..Maurice.

Bioethics and Dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic

Graphic: : St Roch Ministering to Plague Victims, 
by Jacopo Tintoretto (Italian, 1518-1594)

Yes, there is science. Yes, there are politics. Yes, there are laws to obey. Yes, there is religious doctrine. Yes, there is public opinion. And yes, there is the ethics--the concept of fulfilling all  these domains fairly, logically and yet in the direction of "doing good". 

In the dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, ethical issues are fully present and ethical issues cannot be ignored if it is the goal to proceed to a better and safe and healthy society despite our current handicaps.  

To get a quick idea of the scope of the consideration of ethics and its role in this present pandemic, simply go to the website of a major ethics institution, the Hastings Center and learn what was of already being considered in March of this year.  

At the time of initiating this blog thread in May, a lot has happened since March and in so many ways the ethics of what has happened and what is considered to happen in the months ahead require our understanding and consideration.  ..Maurice.

Preserving Patient Dignity (Formerly Patient Modesty) Volume 111

"Manning up" as a patient in a patient-doctor or patient-nursing staff relationship may end up
losing the very tool for improvement and change.  This was emphasized by Biker in his
Comment in Volume 110: "to the extent men have manned up rather than spoken up, we are guilty of shifting all the blame onto the healthcare establishment rather than owning up that we do share some of the blame for the way things are. By our silence we have enabled those who in turn took advantage of the situation to perpetuate the matriarchy of medicine".

If you look carefully at the above graphic of Satiri published by Wikipedia via Google Images: (Satyr leaning on a tree trunk. Roman copy of the Imperial era after a Greek original of the Late Classicism) 
you will see that the "tool" for action and change had been broken off, missing.  I think this  graphic supports the analogy.  Attention to "manning up" by the man involved may have led to missing
important potentials for valuable change in the medical system beneficial to all men.   Thanks Biker for providing an entry topic for his new next Volume.  ..Maurice.

AS OF JULY 15 2020 THERE WILL BE NO FURTHER COMMENTS POSTED ON THIS
VOLUME BUT POSTING CAN CONTINUE ON VOLUME 112.