X-Message-Number: 12370 From: "Scott Badger" <> References: <> Subject: Re: premortem cryonics Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 09:14:10 -0500 Bob Ettinger wrote: > In terms of near-future, practical measures, if you or a family member are > terminal and want to initiate cryopreservation, my suggestion is as follows. > Die in a state that does not have a law against suicide (even though it may > have a law against assisted suicide, as in Michigan). Make prior arrangements > with the Medical Examiner, and have him or a representative present when the > patient (unassisted) commits suicide by an appropriate method. Obtain the > Medical Examiner's prior assurance that he will sign the death certificate > and waive autopsy.....I'm not saying that locating a cooperative Medical > Examiner will be easy, but it MIGHT be possible, if handled carefully. Interesting. Does anyone already have a list of those states in which suicide is not illegal? And shouldn't we attempt to establish alliances with a few medical examiners across the country now instead of each cryonicist having to seek one out individually at a point when time may be very precious? I would imagine that any medical examiner who would agree to oversee an unassisted suicide would probably insist that most of the same parameters required in Oregon with the assisted suicide law be observed. And that's OK with me. We certainly don't want people choosing to deanimate and be cryopreserved for relatively frivolous reasons (e.g. a serious mood disorder or a chronic but non-deadly medical condition like quadraplegia or severe arthritis). But we still have a serious problem in the case where one contracts a degenerative brain disease such as Alzheimer's. From our perspective, it's imperative that the brain be cryopreserved before its neural integrity / identity is ravaged by these degenerative disorders. One thing that may complicate this problem is that (and i may be wrong here) Alzheimers is not nearly as terminal as it used to be. My mother has been kept alive far longer than the original prognosis because of newly developed drugs that appear to greatly slow the degeneration. So where can a cryonicist go who has been diagnosed with a degenerative brain disorder, and who also has the considerable courage it would take to voluntarily deanimate? Scott Badger Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12370