X-Message-Number: 1764
Date: 18 Feb 93 11:06:42 EST
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: CRYONICS Regulation

To: Cryonet 

February 18, 1993

Would Graham Wilson, who wants cryonics to be regulated and 
has drafted laws for this purpose, please tell us why he 
believes that government officials are more trustworthy than 
people who run cryonics enterprises? This seems to be the 
implication: that we will be "safer" if bureaucrats control 
us than if we are allowed to control ourselves. Bearing in 
mind that the qualifications for civil service include a 
longing for power and job security, while anyone who runs a 
cryonics business must be so dedicated that (s)he is willing 
to devote many hours of basically voluntary labor to a very 
idealistic cause, I find Mr. Wilson's viewpoint hard to 
understand in logical terms. 

Psychologically, however, it seems very familiar, since I 
grew up in his homeland and became intimately acquainted with 
the national desire to be taken care of. The unpleasant 
social consequences were one reason I left England in 1970 
and have never had much desire to return. 

The idea that someone with seemingly genuine interest in 
cryonics would want the field to be regulated seems quite 
crazy to me. It's like a dog begging to be put on a leash. 
Dogs actually do that; but should we? 

Maybe some sort of regulation is "inevitable" (although that 
smacks of British fatalism, and is contradicted by Alcor's 
successful fights against California bureaucrats). However, 
as I understand it Mr. Wilson is not merely preparing a 
contingency plan so that if government eventually shows an 
interest in us, we are ready to pre-empt their ideas with our 
own. No; Mr. Wilson really seems to think regulation is a 
"good idea." 

I am surprised that this subject hasn't caused more reaction 
here. After all, I'm a wishy-washy bleeding-heart libertarian 
compared to some in cryonics. Maybe people simply aren't 
taking Mr. Wilson very seriously. In which case, I think they 
should: if his ideas start circulating at all widely, they 
could create a lot of trouble. After all, there's nothing 
that excites a bureaucrat more than the possibility of 
additional territory. And here we are, completely unregulated 
virgin soil. It makes me extremely nervous. 

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