X-Message-Number: 5933
From:  (Brian Wowk)
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics,sci.life-extension
Subject: Re: Virtue of suffering
Date: 12 Mar 96 23:15:42 GMT
Message-ID: <>
References: <> <>


In <> John Sharman <> 
writes:

>During the last couple of days I have read a good deal more (though by
>no means all) of the material offered at the Cryocare website and on the
>basis of what I have seen I am satisfied that the organisation is not
>touting for business in the shape of long-deceased embalmed corpses.
>Having said that, it remains my view that the material displayed *does*
>give the false and unsupportable impression that there is *some chance*
>of cryonic preservation and later revival in such cases. I still think
>that the cryonicists owe it to the public not to give false or
>misleading impressions of this kind and my challenge still stands that
>they should edit their advertising so as to eliminate the offending
>words.

	This (at last) is an entirely reasonable and accurate 
characterization of the true state of affairs, and I thank John
for it.  Unfortunately the offending text *cannot* be edited, and
this is perhaps the best proof that it is not advertising.  (If the
text appeared in a cryonics introduction, or brochure, it most
surely would be edited.)  The text cannot be edited any more than
the New York Times can edit what they wrote last year; a retraction
can be printed, but the original text of a newsletter (especially
a printed one) is forever part of the public record.  Of course
that does not preclude us from writing further articles on this
subject, which we no doubt will as a result of this exchange.

	I said earlier that although CryoCare does not advertise
quack cancer cures, I would probably try a quack cancer cure myself
*if there was no other choice*.  In other words, if I'm in an
airplane crash, and only pieces of my brain are found the next
day, I want them frozen anyway.  My family has ample life insurance
protection, and would not suffer (financially that is) by such a
final frivolous indulgence of my wish to be cloned in the future.
God knows many people spend more on life-long smoking habits.
(You're not *really* going to start again, are you John?)

	I've said all this because there is a slot on CryoCare's
paperwork in which members state conditions under which they do
not want to be cryopreserved.  The most common preference is that
"any biological remains whatsoever" be frozen.  Thus, if you hear
at some time in future that CryoCare has frozen someone under
biologically indefensible conditions, don't automatically assume
it was John Q. Public whose widow was misled by CryoCare advertising.
It was probably me.

	As to the libel issue, I'm willing to let that rest (unless
Brad wishes to continue on with it).  One problem is that there
appears to be as much as a 48 hour delay between demon.uk and my
site, already causing me to make posts I would not have made had
I seen this most recent one from John.  I shall accordingly try
to "turn the other cheek" for a day or two and see what happens.   

(uk.legal dropped)

***************************************************************************
Brian Wowk          CryoCare Foundation               1-800-TOP-CARE
President           Your Gateway to the Future        
   http://www.cryocare.org/cryocare/

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