X-Message-Number: 2987 Date: Sat, 13 Aug 94 23:50:28 From: <> Subject: CRYONICS-hostile BC law >From Mike Perry to Cryonet Aug. 13, 1994 > Subject: BC anti-cryonics law In response to Ben Best's recent posting, today I mailed this letter out: Mike Perry 7895 E. Acoma Drive #110 Scottsdale, AZ 85260-6916 Aug. 12, 1994 Mr. Paul Snikars, Registrar Cemeteries and Funeral Services Branch Ministry of Housing, Recreation and Consumer Services 1019 Wharf Street Victoria, British Columbia V8V 1X4 CANADA Dear Mr. Snikars: I'm writing this letter to register a strong protest against Part 5, Section 57, "Arrangements Forbidden" of the BC Cemetery and Funeral Services Act (Bill 42) which reads: "No person shall offer for sale or sell any arrangement for the preservation or storage of human remains based on cryonics, irradiation or any other means of preservation or storage, by whatever name called, that is offered or sold on the expectation of the resuscitation of human remains at a future time." I live far from your province, in the United States, though I have been in Canada. I found it enjoyable, and would like to return someday. However, I would never settle in BC, nor advise anyone else to do so, so long as this anti-cryonics law of yours remains on the books. Apparently you think you are "protecting consumers" against an enterprise you think is necessarily fraudulent. It raises the question of who are the "experts" you consulted to arrive at this conclusion. Did you consult with anyone who supports cryonics, such as encryption expert Dr. Ralph Merkle? Dr. Merkle published a paper in a peer-reviewed medical journal in 1992, defending the practice and remarking that "Given the life-saving nature of cryonics, it would be tragic if it were to prove feasible but was little used." (*Medical Hypotheses* (1992) 39, 6-16). I have heard it said also that you claim you are not restricting someone in BC from being a cryonicist or being frozen at death, so long as no one tries to "offer for sale or sell any arrangement" of this sort in *your* province. However, it is hard to see how cryonic arrangements could be made in BC without someone offering it for sale in violation of your law. Apparently, a BC resident would have to move out of your province to so much as *find out* about the practice and how to make arrangements. After making their arrangements, could they then return to BC, after which everything would be fine, provided they kept their mouth shut tight to avoid possible complicity in "offering for sale"? It is hard to see too how the physical operations of a cryonic suspension could proceed unhindered. Could the complicated preliminary procedure of body washout be carried out without running afoul of your law? (To minimize deterioration this procedure should be started as soon as possible after death, and not after several hours or days as might be required if the body must be shipped out of reach of your jurisdiction.) Representatives of a cryonics organization would have to have some physical involvement, in BC, with a BC resident who had made arrangements, and who died there. What provisions in your laws would guarantee that a cryonic suspension could be started in BC without interference? I leave you with one parting thought: you have more to lose by forbidding cryonics, if it proves to work, than you do by permitting it, if it fails. Sincerely, Mike Perry Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2987