From Graeme Warren
Joseph Strout
(Letters, 23 May, p 57) may or may not be justified in hoping
that in a hundred years’ time humanity will be able to restore frozen bodies to
life. But even if it can be done, why should it be?
The future which Strout looks forward to will be a pretty crowded place, as a
society which can raise the dead must have long since achieved the lesser aim of
halting the ageing process. If death becomes a choice rather than a necessity,
how many people would be prepared to move on and leave their assets and
resources to a new generation?
There would be no reason for adding to the population people that nobody
living will know or care about, who will be helpless in a strange society, and
who have in any case lived out one life already. It is far more likely that the
people of that time will give priority to the needs of their own generation and
let the dead rest in peace.
Wokingham, Berkshire
