X-Message-Number: 17407
From: 
Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2001 16:05:05 EDT
Subject: NDEs

Not long ago on Cryonet some interest was shown in NDEs, 
near-death-experiences. 

PASSAGE is a 2001 novel by Connie Willis (Bantam hard cover) on this topic. 
Aside from being much too long for what it has to say, it's a pretty good 
read with some nice sentiments. Science good, death bad, be kind. 

One passage, referring to use of drugs to recover patients in extremis, could 
apply also to other radical measures including cryonics. A lawyer says, 
"Since the patient is technically deceased, the same legal permissions as 
those required for organ harvesting could be used." But some hospitals forbid 
"experimentation" on the just-deceased, so: "Our second option is an Extreme 
Measures order, which demands that every possible measure be taken to save 
the life of the patient."

The "Extreme Measures Order" presumably means a court order, which seems 
impractical in most cryonics cases.

Near the end of the book, on p.568, there is a statement about specific 
chemicals and their specific (potentially life-saving) actions in NDEs. I 
don't know whether any of that is founded in recognized work.  

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org

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