X-Message-Number: 1160
From:  (Nick Szabo)
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics,misc.legal
Subject: Pre-legal death suspension
Message-ID: <>
Date: 21 Aug 92 10:24:09 GMT
References: <>


In article <>  
(kevin.q.brown) writes:

>    In Indiana we had one major advantage:  our patient was not human.  
>One of the biggest problems for cryonics has always been that we cannot 
>schedule suspensions.  Even where a patient is clearly terminal with only 
>days or hours before cardiac arrest, we cannot do anything to hasten that 
>person's entrance into cryonic suspension without being charged with 
>homicide.  Mike's dog Mitzi was certainly in a condition where most pet 
>owners would have had her "put to sleep."  We would, indeed, "put her to 
>sleep" with anesthesia;  but our intention was to drop her temperature 
>until her heart stopped and then proceed down to liquid nitrogen 
>temperature (-320 degrees F or -196 C).

There is at least one state, Michigan, where physician-assisted suicide,
eg that practiced by Jack Kavorkian, is legal.  Has a cryonics
organization considered trying this procedure on terminally ill 
members in places where it is legal?  Have you discussed this issue with 
people in the "right to die" movement?  How are U.S. courts in general
interpreting the recent Michigan case that aquitted Kavorkian?

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