X-Message-Number: 2159
From:  (Keith F. Lynch)
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Subject: Re: Flatliners?
Date: 25 Apr 1993 13:00:01 -0400
Message-ID: <1reg2h$>
References: <>


In article <>  (Peter 
Alexander Merel) writes:
> I was talking with a doctor friend of mine about cryonics, and the
> revivability of frozen folks, and he speculated that some important
> element of consciousness might be lost when electrical activity in
> the brain ceases.

I'm surprised that doctor isn't aware that during some brain operations,
the body is cooled to near freezing, the heart stopped, and the blood
drained, for up to an hour.  People recovery from such operations
apparently none the worse for the experience.

Brainwaves also flat-line during cold-water near-drownings and some
barbiturate comas.  If there hasn't been time for lack of oxygen to
do its damage, or if the circulation and breathing were artificially
maintained, this appears to be harmless.

Possibly cryonics won't work, but not for that reason.  More likely,
because the people they freeze may be irreversibly dead before freezing,
or because the freezing process may cause irreperable damage.  I only
wish I knew.
-- 
Keith Lynch, 

f p=2,3:2 s q=1 x "f f=3:2 q:f*f>p!'q  s q=p#f" w:q p,?$x\8+1*8

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