Q u o t e: No, this would be far to exploitable for an HC character to advance/level up safely; hiding behind a meat shield of his SC companions. You could have level 60 hardcore characters who rarely actually played hardcore since they were playing in softcore hiding behind their immortal friends.
HC should only be able to play with other HC players.
/thread
Edit:
I love all the threads that come up from people claiming to be HC players. There have been so many threads that are like, "I'm a HC player, but uh... can you make HC easy mode for me please?"