X-Message-Number: 10107 Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1998 09:40:52 -0400 From: (Will Ware) Subject: RE: Sequel To "THE FIRST IMMORTAL"? In article: <> "Halperin, Jim" <> writes: > ...... no cryonics organization has > scientifically tested enough alternatives to make the sign-up process > more automatic and friction-free. in response to which, John de Rivaz wrote: <<< If the legal profession as a whole thought cryopreservation a good idea, and their colleagues in the legislature enacted laws which said that it is every individual's right to chose cryopreservation and cryopreservation has precedence over everything else, then fine.. Cryonics organisations could have very simple sign up procedures. >>> I don't think that's how it works here in the U.S. Even if some procedure is entirely legal and something an attorney considers a good idea, their interests are still served by keeping the procedure complex and cryptic. It's a medieval guild mentality of defending their turf (these days, their revenue stream) from non-lawyers. As long as the lawyers' cut is guaranteed in some way, the process can be relatively friction-free from the client's point of view. Buying a car or getting married are examples of procedures where the lawyers' cut has been automated enough that the lawyer need not by physically present, so the procedure appears to the client to be friction-free (at least the legal component of it appears so). These frictionless legal procedures are (I think) the results of large volume and social acceptance. If "marriage" were as experimental/controversial as, say, "same-sex marriage", the role of lawyers would be much more visible, and their fees would be both higher and more variable. Yet another argument favoring large volumes feeding the cryonics pipeline. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Will Ware email: wware[at]world[dot]std[dot]com PGP fp (new key 07/15/97) 67683AE2 173FE781 A0D99636 0EAE6117 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10107