X-Message-Number: 8620
From: John de Rivaz <>
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Subject: Re: Hospice care at cryonics facilities
Date: Sat, 20 Sep 1997 10:29:31 +0100
Message-ID: <>
References: <5vupu5$j43$>

In article: <5vupu5$j43$>  "William R. Cousert" 
<> writes:
> 
>  It seems to me that it should be possible to operate a hospice at 
cryonics
> facilities. This would allow the terminally ill to be quickly suspended
> after death. Why isn't this being done?
> 
> William R. Cousert
> 

A good idea, but the anwser to your question of why it isn't being done is 
the same as to the idea of why not have an old folks' home attached to a 
cryonics facility or why not have cryonics organisations offering life 
insurance as insurers rather than agents:

The legal profession.

The legal risks of conflict of interests lawsuits, and the legal costs of 
setting up such an operation are prohibitive. That way the legal profession 
protects the interests of other professions from having their profits 
directed elsewhere, in this case to cryonics.

When many more people are attracted to cryonics it may be possible to have 
institutions like hospices run entirely by people sympathetic to cryonics, 
but these would be separate legal entities and the profits would not be 
directed by any binding agreement to a cryonic research or development 
organisation. Of course the shareholders of the hospice or other institution 
could as individuals volunteer their dividends, profits or salaries or 
whatever to cryonics. But that would go through various processes, such as 
taxation, on the way which would diminish them. These lossy processes can be 
reduced (such as by making a research organisation a charitable non-profit 
one) but again at great legal expense.

The final result of all this is that, in the forseable future, Cryonicists 
are denied the opportunity of dying amongst people they are knowing are 
doing their very best for them. People will die in hospitals knowing that 
the personel around them are largely ignorant of or even actively 
unsympathetic to cryonics. Some of these personel will be looking at the 
bodies of patients as possible sources of spare parts or material for 
autopsy experiments. However perhaps the patients should be pleased to be 
giving their lives for the integrity of the professions.:-)

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