X-Message-Number: 5687
From: John de Rivaz <>
Newsgroups: uk.legal,sci.cryonics
Subject: Re: Sale of body parts - Should this be legal ?
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 18:00:44 +0100
Message-ID: <>
References: <>

In article: <>  
 writes:
> 
> Views for and against please. Ref recent BMA findings (hear say of 
> course!) Is this such a bad thing if controlled ? 
> 

This question arises every so often amongst those interested in cryonic 
suspension - can they strike a deal with the authorities "suspend my brain 
(for future restoration into a new body grown from my DNA) and in exchange 
you can use any other bits you may find useful." 

Cryonics costs of the order of $28k plus $6k transport from the UK to the 
US - organs have been sold for a lot more, and theoretically the two ought 
to balance out.

In fact aspiring cryonicsts are told that the technical protocols for 
cryonic susepnsion and for organ harvesting are mutually exclusive, even if 
you only want to suspend the brain (which is never used for transplants, 
for obvious reasons). 

A more serious issue is compulsory autopsy - this is also incompatible with 
suspension protocols. Of course *if* cryonics is eventually proved to work 
then governments who have prevented it for certain individuals by forcing 
autopsies will be liable on some sort of human rights/murder/etc charges, 
but it is highly unlikely that the individuals who acted for these 
governments will be alive by then. 

However...
It is known know that cryonics patients can't be revived by present 
technology. They rely on future technology. At present whether this this 
future technology is possible is open to debate. But I suspect that even if 
we can't perform it within the lifetime of present day coroners and 
pathologists we may well be a lot clearer on how possible it will be. A 
comparison is space travel to Proxima Centauri - we can see how to do it, 
but it will have to wait for some new and rising technologies to appear 
before we can do it.

-- 
Sincerely,     ****************************************       
               * Publisher of        Longevity Report *
John de Rivaz  *                     Fractal Report   *
               *          details on request          *
               ****************************************
In the information age, sharing can increase world wealth enormously,
because giving information does not decrease your information.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohndeR


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