From: john grigg (starman125@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Sep 13 1999 - 18:56:34 MDT
Hello everyone,
I was fascinated by what Jeff Davis posted in the cryonet regarding what
would be commonly called physician assisted suicide. I am not a lawyer or
legal expert but I wonder if "physician assisted suicide" could be seen as a
different thing entirely in the case of cryonic suspension?? Afterall, we
only intend to be "temporarily" at rest while technology advances to a point
where we can be "awakened". And some top notch scientific minds view
cryonics as having a strong possibility of succeeding which would work to
our favor.
So on this basis could we appeal to the courts and have "physician assisted
deanimation" for cryonic suspension made totally legal?? I look forward to
what you all have to say regarding this. Especially Greg Burch, our
resident attorney.
Sincerely,
John Grigg
Jeff Davis wrote:
From: Jeff Davis <jdavis@socketscience.com>
Subject: It's NOT suicide
Friends,
Recent posts concerning pre-mortem suspension and related matters have
repeatedly involved the use of the word "suicide", and in so doing have
tended to suggest that cryonic suspension is in some sense a form of
suicide.
HELLO!!! Time to get a clue, boys and girls!
Find another term. Programmed deanimation. Pre-mortem suspension.
Cryo-supression of biochemical metabolism. Low-temperature interruption of
cellular homeostasis. Chemo-structural freeze-lock. Whatever works for
you.
But NOT suicide. Even post-mortem suspension is "mortem" at all only
because legal and medical groups establish the "authoritative" definition
of death. As almost all readers of this list should know, at the moment of
declaration of death and for some indeterminate period thereafter, the
"authoritative" definition of death--which definition carries with it a
sense of irrevocable finality--is not death at all, but rather the
condition more precisely to be described as the-state-wherein-we(meaning
the medical establisment)-can't-do-anything-more-to-make-you-healthy-again,
ie, "beyond help".
Beyond whose help? Beyond the medical establishment's help? Yes.
Beyond all help? No.
Cryonic suspension, PARTICULARLY a deliberate, planned, and controlled
pre-mortem suspension, is, by intention, and by the possibility (in my view
the near certainty) of a successful outcome, the very antithesis of suicide.
So if you find yourself involved in a discussion about
physician-assisted suicide, or insurance/suicide issues, take a moment to
make it clear that, in stark contrast to suicide's despair, desperation,
and tragic loss, cryonics is a pro-actively life-affirming and life-saving
strategy of dynamic optimism.
Best, Jeff Davis
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