X-Message-Number: 3914
Date:  Mon, 27 Feb 95 00:40:18 
From: Steve Bridge <>
Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Cryonics Questions


To CryoNet
>From Steve Bridge, President, Alcor
February 26, 1995

In reply to Message #3899
            From: Eugen Leitl <>
            Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
            Subject: Re: glycerol questions
            Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 18:06:06 +0100
            Message-ID: <>
            References: <> 
<>


     Mr. Leitl asks some of the most basic questions in cryonics and only 
wants a brief outline.  He also challenges the cryonics community to 
answer them to "show a greater transparency and thus gain a higher 
credulity level."  Believe us, Mr. Leitl, we've been telling everyone who 
will listen the answers to these questions for years.  Very few of these 
things are confidential, if any.

     I'm not sure it would be worth the effort of someone to thoroughly 
answer those particular questions on sci.cryonics or on Cryonet (an e-mail 
mailing list to which much of sci.cryonics is also posted), since we can 
do so more efficiently and completely by pointing toward material already 
written.  Most, if not all, of that information is readily available on 
CryoNet and in the various publications of the cryonics organizations.  
Much is in the FAQ for sci.cryonics, which I hope Mr. Leitl has found by 
now.  That also includes the addresses for the different organizations, 
all of whom have detailed information on those questions.

     The instructions for contacting CryoNet should be available in the 
FAQ for sci.cryonics, if not elsewhere.

     Alcor would be happy to send Mr. Leitl (or anyone else) a package of 
material which will answer many of these questions, leaving us more time 
to answer the NEW questions the reader will immediately have.  Send your 
request to  or  or call us at 1-800-367-2228 
(U.S. and Canada) or 602-922-9013 (everywhere).

     I hope someone with more time than I have can point to the particular 
CryoNet postings or other net information that will be most helpful to Mr. 
Leitl.

     I will just mention one item on his list, because I've done work on 
it recently.

>10) Are legal problems real problems? _Is_ the legal status
>   of cryosuspended person "deseased"? Any indications of
>   change?

     In November I posted to CryoNet a long summary of the current legal 
situation.  Ben Best of Canada has added to this for some international 
situations that he knows of.  A much expanded version of my article, along 
with Ben's article, will be in the 1st Quarter issue of CRYONICS Magazine 
(unfortunately delayed in publication for a couple of more weeks).  I can 
e-mail a copy of that text to anyone who wants the expanded version, or 
cannot wait for the magazine to arrive.

     Maybe I should also send a copy to Kevin for a file copy people can 
retrieve in the future.

     To briefly summarize:  The legal problems are quite real and often 
expensive (perhaps over $1 million spent on legal fees to defend cryonics 
from 1987-1992; a very small amount spent for that purpose since then).  
The legal status of all cryonic suspension patients is "dead", for reasons 
detailed in my article.  Most simply, we can't prove (yet) that their 
frozen, non-functional condition will ever be reversible; so why should a 
government label them as anything else at this time?

     No signs of change expected there for some time, I'm afraid; although 
it will be interesting to see if legal changes allowing assisted suicide 
in the United States (beginning to be discussed and, in one case, approved 
in various states) will allow dying cryonics patients to choose "very cold 
storage" as their preferred method of "suicide."  That alone will not 
change the patients' legal status; but it will make many people think 
about that status for the first time.

Steve Bridge

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