X-Message-Number: 16230 Date: Mon, 07 May 2001 15:54:32 -0700 From: Olaf Henny <> Subject: Cryonics in the EU References: <> I think the recent controversy about cryonicists, who feel orphaned in the UK indicates clearly, that the time has come to consider a full service cryonics facility in the EU. - France, although reasonably centrally located, is out because of its anti-cryonics legislation. - UK appears to have the most cryonicists at this time, but is located at the periphery of the EU - Germany has the largest population base, but is likewise not centrally positioned, although this will change, when the eastward expansion of the EU proceeds. My choice would be Holland. It has good access from all directions and, more importantly, it has not only quietly condoned euthanasia for decades, but has recently legalized it for its citizens. I am not sure if citizens from other EU countries can obtain the same privilege after establishing residency there. If I knew Dutch, I would try to access the actual legislation on the web. Why not stay in the UK, where at this time appears to be the most significant base of cryonicists outside of the US? I believe, that the main reason cryonics is strong in UK, is that it shares a common language with the country of birth of cryonics. I have recently reworked the computer translation into German of the website of the American Cryonics Society and I can attest to the fact, that this is a whole lot of work and therefore quite an obstacle in communicating ideas and concepts of cryonics into that language base of almost 100 million people. But I also believe, that Germany Austria and Switzerland are fertile grounds for cryonics, because the are in the average less religious than Americans and let s face it: Although cryonics is quite compatible with religion, since we all die in the end anyway, religious people do not subscribe to cryonics as easily as atheists. What is needed to expand into these non-English language regions is translations of good scientific cryonics-friendly material or reports on scientific progress toward realizable cryonics, in order to combat the stigma of charlatanry. I thought Charles Platt s report on the seminar held on November 8, 1998 by 21st C.M. was an excellent piece for public relations. I went ahead and translated Part 1 of this report into German with the intent to post it in the German language website Kryonik . I obtained Charles permission to do so, but Brian Wowk asked me to hold off. If we can t let go of valuable promotional material, for publication in other languages, we mustn t expect a lot of progress there. Best, Olaf Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16230