X-Message-Number: 3884
From: Brian Wowk <>
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 95 16:22:08 CST
Subject: pain

	Marty Nemko writes that the human brain is a very delicate 
system, with many more ways to go wrong than right, and then asks 
about the likelihood of cryonics patients waking with chronic
pain as a result of things not being quite right.  For many reasons,
I believe this is a misplaced concern.

	Let me begin by asking Marty whether he would want anyone
to bother calling an ambulance after he was involved in an auto
accident today.  After all, a significant percentage of auto accident
victims do suffer life-long neurological injury, physical impairment,
and, yes, chronic pain.  But wouldn't you at least want a shot  
at getting better, instead of throwing the towel in from the very
start?  How do you know how things will turn out unless you at
least give medicine a chance?  How do you know your new life will
not be worth living without even trying?  How do you know future
developments (like spinal cord regeneration) will not improve
your quality of life unless you hang in there and see?

	Enough of the 20th century.  Now let's talk about your
ambulance ride to the 22nd century (cryonics).  If and when it  
ever becomes possible to revive you, it will only be possible
because medicine has come to understand how the human body works
down to virtually every last molecule.  The molecular roots of
health, disease, pain, pleasure will be completely understood.
Quite frankly, the chances of you waking up in pain are about as
likely as you waking up in a hospital today with your foot sutured
onto your head.

	Remember that cryonics is a last-in-first-out (LIFO) process.
People preserved with the most advanced (least injurious) technology
will be revived first, and people preserved with the crudest (most
injurious) technology will be revived last.  If and when today's
cryonics patients are revived, they will be the beneficiaries of at
least 100 years of medical and social experience with the revival
of cryonics patients.

	Marty, DON'T WORRY SO MUCH! :)

---Brian Wowk

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