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