X-Message-Number: 20169
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 09:23:55 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: 2 answers to 2 questions

Is cryonics an activity that pollutes the Earth? Of course. Merely living
and breathing, eating and defecating is a polluting activity. However,
currently liquid nitrogen is an industrial byproduct. In other words, we
are finding a use for something that few people want very much. You could
compare this with buying an old car instead of a new one. A very "green"
approach indeed. Dewar manufacture is a different matter, requiring
stainless steel and some other materials; but dewars last for decades
(longer than refrigerators) and consume no power. Personally I would
compare cryonics with the huge array of resources that are required to
maintain a terminal cancer patient for an extra week of life. Since we are
hoping to give people extra decades of life, cryonics compares very
favorably with any heroic medical procedure.

Should we cool terminal patients before they die? Probably. But this would
constitute medical intervention, using a non-FDA-approved procedure. It
would therefore be illegal in the United States, and probably in most
western nations--unfortunately.

--Charles Platt

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