posted on July 6, 2002 03:01:24 PM
Arguably the best hitter in the history of the game, Teddy "Baseball" has passed on. His son, John Henry Williams, is talking about cryogenically freezing his famed father's head for purposes of harvesting DNA for future sale. He is at odds with his dad's attorney and the rest of the family and the remains are not yet assigned to their final resting place. Ted was the only person in both the baseball and fishing halls of fame and he was a world class photographer as well. A DNA sample would be worth a lot more than his rookie card.
posted on July 6, 2002 05:15:35 PM
I read that article in the paper today. His half sister is fighting him on it. Supposedly, his body has already been flown to the facility (Alcor something in Arizona?) in preparation. Williams daughter says her father wished to be cremated. Very weird story.
posted on July 6, 2002 05:54:55 PM
Good gawd! I can't imagine someone being so self-centered. So after his head's frozen, does the son just pay them visits once in awhile to extract some of daddy's DNA? What a laugh!
posted on July 7, 2002 01:56:21 PM
I think that it's an excellent idea.
Ted Williams had eyesight that was so superior it defied all normal methods of measurement. He said that he could count threads on a baseball hurtling toward him at 90 mph, and his eyes were the chief cause of his extraordinary batting ability. He excelled as a fighter pilot in two wars for the same reason.
Such eyes are a rare occurance in our species. Certainly the genetic coding which gave Williams his vision is contained in his DNA. DNA can be gathered and preserved. We may not yet know how to make full use of it in our attempts to improve our breed, but we eventually will. The experimentation already accomplished shows that we are on the path toward being able to create an ever improving and superior race of people.
This is all to the good. Throughout history all of man's notable advances in all areas of endeavor have been spearheaded by people with unusual characteristics of one type or another. We call them genius and have treated them as fortunate accidents which worked for the betterment of all mankind.
Genetic engineering, though still in infancy as a workable technique, shows the promise of making humans able to upgrade the species to better enable it to meet the challenges to come.
Inferior characteristics only hold man back, like a figurative yoke or a ball and chain. If we are able, why not shuck off the burdens of having to provide for the stupid, the ugly, the intellectually or physically mediocre? What good are the petty or the insane? Mankind, free of such encumbrances, could advance at much accelerated rates.
So preserve William's DNA. It can work for the benefit of all mankind in the area of eyesight.
posted on July 7, 2002 02:31:22 PM
If his son wanted to donate his dad's head for study on his eyes, then fine. Obviously this guy isn't going that route, instead he wants to profit financially from it. I just don't think it's ethical. Is it even legal? Could it set a precedence for selling body parts instead of donating them?
posted on July 7, 2002 03:09:01 PM
I did not copy that from anywhere. It was simply a spur of the moment post and I believe that DNA engineering is the single best hope for our species. Without it we will stagnate. Already much of the glimpse into the future is beyond our ability to understand. Man NEEDS the shot in the arm, the method of increasing the frequency of occurrance of superior to all known beings. Call it a master race and you would be wrong, because at a culmination of the process of improvement ALL individuals would be far superior to the average type of today.
posted on July 7, 2002 03:11:45 PM
Body parts are being bought and sold today very frequently. Haven't you paid attention? There were threads in here, even, about the practice of people selling a kidney or other part that they could live without. That's got nothing to do with this.
posted on July 7, 2002 03:46:13 PM
krs, if all he's selling is DNA, that could've been taken from a q-tip swab. What does he need the whole head for? Will he be selling his eyes? His brain? Slices?
Yes, I know we've talked about kidney's being sold by poor people to help feed themselves, but I've never heard of anyone trying to make money off their dads frozen head. I'm trying to think ahead and I'm wondering if anyone in the future, who has any superior trait that dies, will their heads also be worth money? Shouldn't it be that the 'profit' is the satisfaction of knowing your donation might help save some people (if his head is so valuable)? The money part makes it unethical, but that's just me.
posted on July 7, 2002 03:55:17 PM
We don't know the details of Ted's will, of course, but presumably the kid owns the head or at least has a claim to it. Probably the reason he's preserving the whole head is to preserve whatever possible of the interrelated mechanisms between the brain and the eyes - things not well understood NOW but which may be transplantable in the future.
Obviously the kid is only trying to make the most out of these residuals as he can, and there should be no objection to that because it is the american way.
Well that is true, he can be cremated without his head
Obviously the kid is only trying to make the most out of these residuals as he can, and there should be no objection to that because it is the american way.
whatever! LOL! Why didn't you say its only PATRIOTIC while your at it?
And if you knew your children planned on taking your head and freezing it, and just making a little cash on the side, you wouldn't object?
Wait, just thought about that scenario... never mind...
