X-Message-Number: 7128
From: Brian Wowk <>
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 22:54:10 -0600
Subject: Negative Publicity


In <> "Roderick A. 
Carder-Russell" <> writes:

>	The cryonics community was served a bit of negative publicity this
>evening on the television show "E.R.", the weekly medical drama.
>	Not long after the start of the show an elderly patient was
>brought into the emergency room accompanied by his caretaker, who
>expressed the patients desire to be "cryogenically" suspended after his
>, quote, "deanimation".  I at first got a hearty chuckle out of the use
>of deanimation, not hearing the term used much by mainstream community....

>	One of the medical personel didn't understand what the patient
>wanted, so another doctor "clarified" it by saying that the patient wanted
>to be "put on ice after he kicks the bucket".

	Cryonicists have nobody but themselves to blame for this.  Ten
years ago in Cryonics magazine (in the article, "The Death of Death in 
Cryonics") I wrote that cryonics-speak like "deanimation" should be
tossed out the window.  Yet this word keeps getting recycled again and
again in cryonics literature.  The proper terminology for the event in
question is CARDIAC ARREST.

	By analogy, imagine telling a doctor that a patient has
written wishes not be resuscitated after cardiac arrest.  Then imagine
telling another doctor that the patient has written wishes not to
be resuscitated after "his Thetan leaves him" (Scientology-speak).
Which physician is going to take you seriously, and which is going
to write you off as a loon?  If cryonicists don't want to be perceived
as cultists, then they shouldn't speak and behave like cultists.

	For the same reason, "suspension" and "suspended" is yet
more cryonics-speak to avoid.  If cryonicists wish to be taken
seriously by medicine, then they should use the language of
medicine instead of inventing their own jargon.  In medicine,
"suspension" means a colloidal pharmaceutical preparation, or
something that happens to doctors whose conduct is under review.
What happens to cryonics patients is properly called CRYOPRESERVATION.

	Even the common replacement of "cryogenics" for "cryonics"
is rooted in people's desire to use familiar, established language 
instead of jargon.  (Personally, though, I don't think it's too much
to ask that we be allowed to add ONE new word the English language
to represent a concept that is truly new and distinct.)   


>	Just when he thought we might be getting ahead with the recent
>discovery special.

	You reap what you sow.  Haven't seen the Discovery special
yet (being a resident of Canada), but by most accounts it was a
positive contribution.  (Wonder, though, if anyone talked about 
suspending deanimated patients... ? ;)  

***************************************************************************
Brian Wowk          CryoCare Foundation               1-800-TOP-CARE
President           Human Cryopreservation Services   
   http://www.cryocare.org/cryocare/

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