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From ho5cad!att!albali.unspecified-domain!miron Thu May 24 21:10:30 1990
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Date: 24 May 90 17:29 -0700
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Subject: Re: cryonics #171 - Re: Legalisms for Donaldson's Suspension

>X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.1.1 5/02/90)

It seems that TKD can work around any law that doesn't allow other
people to suspend him before legal death.  He can kill himself.  Even
if committing suicide is illegal nobody can punish a legally dead man.
I am sure that there is a way he can cause himself irreversible damage
and be pronounced legally dead (without damaging his brain).

But that should be a last resort.  It is much better if he can win his
case.  What about that fund for the legal fees?

I hope nobody gets offended by my suggestion above.  I would follow it
if I was in his position.

-- 
	By me: Miron Cuperman <>

[ Miron, as I understand it, here is an example of where we get into the
  perniciousness of the law.  Suicides have to be reported to the local
  Coroner (or Medical Examiner), who has the legal muscle to perform an
  autopsy against the wishes of the patient, family, and suspension
  organization, resulting in a very poor suspension.  Traditionally, giving
  the Coroner (or Medical Examiner) this much power made sense because
  (1) the death may have been a murder disguised as a suicide and the legal
  authorities needed to be able to determine that, and (2) the person was
  dead anyway, so an autopsy would not cause any more harm.  The possibility
  of reanimation from cryonic suspension changes the situation.  From a
  cryonicist's point of view, whenever a person who wants to be suspended
  "dies" in a manner that legally requires notification of the Coroner (or
  Medical Examiner), that Coroner (or Medical Examiner) has the legal right
  to kill (via an autopsy) that person who desperately needs to be suspended.
  Perhaps other people more familiar with the finer points of the law can
  clarify this further. - KQB ]

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