As a distinguished bioethicist and frustrated Red Sox fan, Arthur Caplan urged the son of late Hall-of-Famer Ted Williams to end the cryogenic scandal that has tainted his father's passing yesterday at noon.
"It's a scam," emphasized Director of Penn's Center for Bioethics Arthur Caplan. "You cannot live forever by freezing yourself."
Caplan spoke to an audience of around 100 students and community members assembled on the 3700 block of Locust Walk as part of a series of summer midday lectures entitled "Don't Be Late: 60-Second Lecture & Lunch."
In the one minute lecture, Caplan expressed his frustration on the Williams ordeal by comparing the freezing of Williams' body to the destruction of the Berlin wall.
"Ronald Reagan, facing the Berlin Wall, once said, 'Mr. Gorbechev, tear down this wall,'" Caplan said. "I say to John Henry Williams, 'Unplug the freezer.'"
A Boston native, Caplan also lamented about the troubled history of the Red Sox, invoking several examples of the team's spectacular failure on the field. He then pointed to the Williams' fiasco as just another chapter of the same story.
"The Red Sox cannot seem to get anything right," Caplan remarked. "They can't even get their all-time hero in the ground."
After Williams' death on July 5, son John Henry and daughter Claudia sent the body to be frozen at Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona. It has been speculated that John Henry may be looking to sell his father's DNA.
In a legal battle that has turned ugly at times, half-sister Bobby-Jo Farrell seeks to retrieve the body, cremate it and sprinkle the ashes off the coast of Florida, as Williams' will mandates.
Both John Henry and Claudia, as well as the estate's executor, have said Williams had a change of heart after the will was drafted in December 1996 and instead, they argue that Williams wanted to be preserved.
However, most members of the audience seemed to side with Caplan's opinion on the matter.
"I agree with him," said College junior Matt Vergare. "[John Henry] is flagrantly exploiting the legend of his father and it's wrong. I'm pretty certain the courts will side with the bioethicists on this one."
Caplan's was the latest speaker for the series that seeks renowned University faculty members to address a lunchtime assembly for exactly one minute on a topic of their choice.
College of General Studies Summer Sessions director Valerie Ross established the lecture series in 1999 as an easy way for busy members of the community to "sample the intellectual richness" of the Penn faculty.
Moreover, attendees can enjoy their lunch while listening to the Caribbean Authentics -- a two-man bass and steel drum ensemble -- before and after the brief noon presentation.
The lecture not only provides an alternative way to spend a lunch break, but it is also an opportunity for people who may not get the chance to attend full-length talks to get a glimpse of a variety of interesting subjects.
"The stringency forces the speaker to be concise and get to the point," said College sophomore Alexander Reich. "Difficult and complex issues become pretty accessible."
The summer lecture series is sponsored by the Office of Summer Sessions, the School of Arts and Sciences, the College of General Studies and the Vice Provost for University Life.
