Let patrons fund work, not purchase ownership of people
Proposed governance. The Lich role can express a real funding idea: people with substantial pecunia (capital and resources) finance difficult research that may take a long time and may fail. The ethical translation is support for a defined program, transparent use of funds, and honest reporting. Money cannot purchase a demonstrated technology that does not exist. Any investment instrument or funding arrangement would need proper professional review before being offered.
Proposed governance. This page expands the “Let patrons fund work, not purchase ownership of people” chapter in the ethics collection.
The Lich role can express a real funding idea: people with substantial pecunia (capital and resources) finance difficult research that may take a long time and may fail. The ethical translation is support for a defined program, transparent use of funds, and honest reporting. Money cannot purchase a demonstrated technology that does not exist. Any investment instrument or funding arrangement would need proper professional review before being offered.
Necromancer’s proposed charter would separate donor status from participant welfare decisions. A major donor would not control tissue contributors, suppress safety findings, overrule an ethics review, or obtain privileged access to another person’s body. A scientific advisory group should be able to stop a project even when stopping it is inconvenient for fundraising.
Access should be designed before a useful intervention exists. The startup could explore a public-benefit commitment (pro bono publico), affordable research-tool access, participant representation, and a defined approach to sharing benefits. These are governance options to evaluate, not promises already implemented. The decision criterion is whether a policy reduces dependence and concentration of power rather than simply giving extraction a more transparent name.
Open this exact section in the Necromancer dossier. The original chapter status is “Proposed governance.”
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