X-Message-Number: 17760
Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2001 08:50:31 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #17752 - #17759

Hi everyone!

Unfortunately I totally fail to understand the relevance of religion
to cryonics.

Sure, people of various religions take up various positions about cryonics
based on their quite false perception that religion and cryonics go
together. They have this perception because they don't understand that
our definition of "death" differs from the common one in ways which
are very easy to explain. Put briefly, we don't think someone should
be treated as "dead" so long as we cannot prove that he/she is so, not
just for current technology but for the technology of the future. Most
current doctors, when they think about the problem, simply decide 
a patient is "dead" when they don't know how to revive them ... a very
poor test, as someone who has studied the work on reviving people
even by those who are not cryonicists, such as P. Safar (MD).

But the mere fact that people with one or another religion take up an
attitude tells you nothing at all. They are no more dealing with
"dead" patients when they deal with a cryonics patient than they
are doing so when they discuss whether or not to have a haircut. And
its importance for cryonics remains about the same.

		Best wishes and long long life,

			Thomas Donaldson

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