X-Message-Number: 18612 From: "John de Rivaz" <> Subject: Autopsy Choice letter appears in New Scientist Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 16:07:35 -0000 My Autopsy Choice letter appeared in New Scientist, dated 20 February, 2002 on page 82 The letter called for freedom of choice in the matter of autopsy. It pointed out that freedom of choice would change the status of pathologists in the eyes of the general public from being ghoulish butchers to professionals performing a wanted service for the deceased and their relatives. The same letter was posted to sci.cryonics on and a number of other newsgroups and has resulted in heated debate ever since. Many of those in favour of compulsion seemed incapable of coherent discussion and resorted to puerile abuse and threats that could result in action in the criminal courts if anyone took them seriously and could be bothered. They also refused to read technical articles by professionally qualified people which make the case for choice. It just shows how secure they feel in their belief that compulsion is ethical and worthwhile. However the votes on http://www.autopsychoice.com have been largely in favour of choice. Unfortunately, due to a technical failure at the poll service providers http://www.voteserve.com the votes only represent a few months, as their system lost its data that time ago. -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz: http://www.deRivaz.com my homepage links to Longevity Report, Fractal Report, music, Inventors' report, an autobio and various other projects: http://www.geocities.com/longevityrpt http://www.autopsychoice.com - http://www.cryonics-europe.org - http://www.porthtowan.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18612