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


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