X-Message-Number: 172 From ho5cad!att!albali.unspecified-domain!miron Thu May 24 21:10:30 1990 Return-Path: <ho5cad!att!albali.unspecified-domain!miron> Received: from ho5cad.UUCP by whscad1.att.uucp (4.1/SMI-3.2) id AA27860; Thu, 24 May 90 21:10:29 EDT Received: by att.att.com; Thu May 24 20:56:58 1990 Received: by relay.CDNnet.CA (4.1/1.14) id AA23750; Thu, 24 May 90 17:55:41 PDT Date: 24 May 90 17:29 -0700 From: To: Message-Id: <> Subject: Re: cryonics #171 - Re: Legalisms for Donaldson's Suspension >X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.1.1 5/02/90) It seems that TKD can work around any law that doesn't allow other people to suspend him before legal death. He can kill himself. Even if committing suicide is illegal nobody can punish a legally dead man. I am sure that there is a way he can cause himself irreversible damage and be pronounced legally dead (without damaging his brain). But that should be a last resort. It is much better if he can win his case. What about that fund for the legal fees? I hope nobody gets offended by my suggestion above. I would follow it if I was in his position. -- By me: Miron Cuperman <> [ Miron, as I understand it, here is an example of where we get into the perniciousness of the law. Suicides have to be reported to the local Coroner (or Medical Examiner), who has the legal muscle to perform an autopsy against the wishes of the patient, family, and suspension organization, resulting in a very poor suspension. Traditionally, giving the Coroner (or Medical Examiner) this much power made sense because (1) the death may have been a murder disguised as a suicide and the legal authorities needed to be able to determine that, and (2) the person was dead anyway, so an autopsy would not cause any more harm. The possibility of reanimation from cryonic suspension changes the situation. From a cryonicist's point of view, whenever a person who wants to be suspended "dies" in a manner that legally requires notification of the Coroner (or Medical Examiner), that Coroner (or Medical Examiner) has the legal right to kill (via an autopsy) that person who desperately needs to be suspended. Perhaps other people more familiar with the finer points of the law can clarify this further. - KQB ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=172