X-Message-Number: 2280 Subject: CRYONICS Disapproving of neuros From: (Charles Platt) Date: Tue, 25 May 93 15:22:15 EDT Art Quaife writes: "Certainly the initial press coverage of the Dora Kent case focused much on the ghoulish nature of what had been done." I'm accustomed to the word "ghoulish" being used by people to whom cryonics is a scary subject, but it's odd to see this pejorative word casually employed by someone who has been actively involved in suspensions. It suggests to me that Art Quaife's objections to neurosuspension may be as much visceral as intellectual. Fundamentally, he may feel it's perverse to cut off heads, while Brian Wowk doesn't. This whole neuro/whole body discussion has emotional overtones, and raises the general subject of people disapproving of each other. As a journalist, I've made a hobby of visiting obscure groups. One thing I've noticed is that when a group feels oppressed or shunned by the general public, they usually console themselves by finding some sub- group that they in turn can disapprove of. And the lower the status of the group, the stronger this need tends to be. (One time I attended a consciousness-raising group of sado- masochists. Also at the meeting were two people who said they were vampirists--they liked to nick each other's skin and lick the blood. The sadomasochists were outraged. Flailing each other was okay, in fact it was a healthy form of pleasure; but licking each other's blood--now, that was really SICK!) So, getting back to cryonics, it seems that the body-freezers tend to disapprove of the head-freezers. And who do the head- freezers disapprove of? Let's see, how about the permafrost freezers? "We'll cut off heads with an electric carving knife and dump them in a dewar, but those guys who put people in permafrost, that's really OUTRAGEOUS." (I've heard statements to this effect, with the appropriate level of moral condemnation.) I haven't met any permafrost enthusiasts, but I'm willing to bet there's some subgroup that they disapprove of, too. What I'm getting at, here, is that none of us can be entirely objective in these areas; a statement that seems rational can just as easily be a rationalization; we're all nutty by everyday standards; and a little live-and-let-live doesn't hurt. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2280