X-Message-Number: 24360
From: 
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 17:22:00 EDT
Subject: Michig'n Suis'de

Hi all:
 
I have previously written about Oreg'n allowing ass'st'd suic'de, and the  

possibility of a terminally ill cryonicist going there and ending life while the
 body and mind remained fairly intact, as opposed to waiting for the painful 
end  when brain death might make reanimation pointless, and multiple organ 
failure  might make it difficult.
 
Then Robert Ettinger wrote "In Michigan suic'de is not illegal,  although 
assisting in a suic'de is.  Also, in hospice programs the red tape  is much 

reduced. It should only be necessary to persuade the medical examiner,  in 
advance, 
to have a representative on hand when requested, to pronounce death,  after 

assuring himself that the patient is competent, and waive autopsy.   Everything
could be set up for the cryonics team to go to work  immediately."
 
An excellent point.  I would like to know in what other states suic'de  is 
not illegal.  Especially, Arizona or states near Alcor?  The  Immortalist says 

that as far as they can find, assisted suic'de is illegal in  all states except
Ore., Utah, North Carolina, and Wyoming.  But where  *unassisted* suic'de, 
suic'de itself is legal they do not say.  Maybe  most places allow suic'de, 
which would mean, I guess, that you could explain  your intentions to the 
authorities
to prevent autopsies and investigations, and they would do nothing to stop  
you.  Can anyone check this out?
 
This may make Michigan a better choice than Ore..  Ore. requires red  tape, 
and that you be within six months of natural death.  But if you have  been 

diagnosed with early Alzheimer's you may be near brain death but a decade  from
full death.  So Michigan would be better, at least if you could make  the 
critical arrangements yourself, without involving "assistance" in the  suic'de 
itself.
 
It thus appears that when you are near death you might go to Michigan and  
rent a place near a cryonics facility.  Then, since suic'de (but not  assisted 

suic'de) is legal, you could set things up yourself.  Not hard,  since all that
is needed is a bathtub and drugs.  The Hemlock Society used  to recommend 

getting a prescription for barbiturates and saving them up, to the  lethal dose

for suic'de.  If you plan to go by hyperthermia and need only  enough to insure
unconsciousness, that shouldn't be too hard. (In Oreg'n  they prefer drugs 

other than barbiturates now; you'd discuss this with your  physician.) Then you
call the cryonics rescue people and the medical  examiner or physician to 

stand by, which appears legal so long as they don't  assist.  Then get in the 
tub, 
turn on the water and swallow the  drugs.  This would allow full cryonics 
procedures by experts to begin  immediately, not just blood replacement and 
initial cooling, and your body does  not have to be transferred by plane.  
 
I've given more thought to the problem of assuring sufficiently cold  water.  
One could buy a tall tank or 50 gallon drum, fitted with an  overflow hose 
near the top, and fill it with blocks of ice.  Turn on a cold  tap and run the 
water via a supply hose to the bottom.  The overflow hose  near the top would 
discharge into your tub.  You'd get in the tub and take  the drugs.  It takes 
some time for the tank to fill to the level of the  overflow, and then very 
cold ice water flows in and fills your tub.  Due to  the very great heat of 
fusion of ice, blocks would last a long time and cool lot  of water from tap 

temperatures to almost-freezing. (It takes as much heat to  change one unit of 
ice 
at freezing into water at the same temperature, as it  does to raise the 

temperature 80 Deg C.) One could do the same by making a  platform in the tub 
below 
the level of the overflow and high enough for a person  to slip under it with 
legs and torso, and then putting the ice on the  platform.  When the water 
rises to that level it contacts the ice and  becomes very cold.  
 
There are probably even easier ways and I invite people to think about  them, 
and to discuss the issue.  The law seems be very much  more tolerant of such 
things than I had imagined.  
 
(I should again emphasize I am not a lawyer nor am I giving legal  advice, 
and I do not urge any healthy person to commit suic'de.  However,  because the 
citizens of the United States ultimately run the country we have  every right 

and even a responsibility to discuss  the laws of our country,  what they allow
and do not allow, and how they might be changed.  And that  is exactly what 
I'm doing here.   And, BTW, I am healthy and don't  expect to face this choice 
for another thirty years or so.)
 

Regards,
 
Alan 


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