X-Message-Number: 10452
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 23:38:19 -0700
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Exclusion from Signup

Jeff Davis's posting (#10435) included a remark, perhaps 
half-humorous, that murderers, politicians and the like be excluded from 
signing up for cryonics. Others (e.g. Charles Platt, #10435) found this 
ethically unacceptable. And so do I. We must not withhold a potentially 
life-saving procedure from someone just because they are "bad" any 
more than we would do so in a more conventional medical case. Steve 
Bridge on the other hand (#10448) would withhold the privilege of 
signing up to those who basically don't and can't understand what they 
are doing. This may be necessary for practical reasons, i.e. to avoid 
ruinous litigation if we are perceived as "taking advantage" of someone 
not mentally competent. Here we still don't want to condemn someone 
to death just because they have a certain problem (one that ought to be 
fixable in the future, no less). But we are faced with a difficult choice 
between the lesser of two evils. So I too favor the idea of not 
encouraging the prospective signups unduly--let them (or their legal 
representatives) show that they at least understand what they are 
getting into.

Mike Perry

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