X-Message-Number: 11410
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: For Olaf: doing cryonics in BC, and the transience of beauty
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 00:09:03 +1100 (EST)

To Olaf (more):

Yes, definitions of death can be read to demand that we actually make
sure that someone is dead by harder criteria than those now used to allow
"donation" of organs.

And I know very well how hard it is to move. One thing cryonicists in
Vancouver might do is to make arrangements to help one another get into
the US (Oregon or wherever) if one of you becomes sick enough that you
might die of your illness. In the case of Australia, which does nothing to
forbid cryonic suspension but does have a problem of distance, one 
Australian resident simply flew to the US when he became gravely ill,
and was suspended there. Another was actually suspended in Australia,
something probably impossible or very difficult in British Columbia.
Even in the case of accidents, there is often warning visible to others
but not to the patient that the patient may soon die. That is IMPORTANT.
It means that with the proper Powers of Attorney and other legal 
arrangements, if you became very seriously ill others could move you
to the US for suspension, even if you yourself would be quite unable to
take the required actions. (Seriously ill people are very rarely able
to do anything for themselves at all ... quite contrary to what we see on
television or in films. So try to plan so that someone will be there
for you in such a case. There are also medical signs that someone is
about to die; such signs are important here, but ultimately anyone
taking care of you will need several days warning, so that some signs
come too late).

In British Columbia these arrangements should not be called "cryonics",
of course. But it doesn't seem to me that the necessary Powers of 
Attorney and other arrangements need to mention cryonics explicitly.
You're just setting things up so that you go to Arizona (or wherever)
before you die. Maybe you like Arizona. Basically it looks to me that
the last thing you want to do is to make your arrangements public WITHIN
BC. So long as those to whom you've given the authority to care for
you all just happen to be cryonicists, such arrangements ought to allow
you to be suspended --- outside BC.

Just exactly what will happen in BC in the future I can't say, not just
because I don't follow BC politics. Some laws eventually become simply
ignored. I don't know how strongly most citizens of BC agree with BC's
strictures against cryonics, an important issue if you want to actually
change the law (probably not likely to succeed soon, but what about 
the situation after the officials who got it passed have left the scene?).

I would suggest that IF you don't feel you want to leave BC, thinking
along these lines may give you some protection, at least. And as you get
older, the probability that you will die more slowly of some disease
condition rather than suddenly by accident or disease is likely to
increase. (All this depends on your exact state of health, of which
I know nothing).

As for what to do if you are willing to move, even to a different
Canadian province, I will point out that many areas in the world are
beautiful, each in their own way. And if you are suspended successfully,
then the beautiful areas and the ugly areas will all change around,
and with interplanetary and interstellar travel there will be more 
wilderness rather than less. (Wilderness consists of areas which human
beings truly do not control --- even now there are few wilderness
areas left on the Earth). And to be particular: do not expect BC to
remain beautiful after your revival, even though it is beautiful today.
We must all learn to enjoy such beauties as they come, rather than holding
on to them tightly. Beauty itself may go on forever, but those places
which are beautiful do not remain so indefinitely.

			Best and long long life to all,

				Thomas Donaldson

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