X-Message-Number: 17780
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 09:23:17 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #17770 - #17778

Hi everyone!

Something very interesting happened to me: someone replied to a message
of mine to Cryonet which I had sent but never received back. Is this
common or does the connection with Australia make a difference?

In any case, the message had to do with the need that some cryonicists
feel to deal with those, Christians or other religions, who feel that
cryonics somehow violates their religion. And I said that it cannot
violate anyone's religion any more than brushing one's teeth violates
your religion.

Since the objections really had to do with religion and a DREAM about
cryonics, perhaps I should simply be silent. But here goes again:
cryonics (whether widely accepted or not as such) is basically a form
of medical technology. It differs from most such technology because
its failure in any particular case can only be proven quite literally
after centuries (or even millenia). But at no time will we have a
means which rescues us from ALL forms of apparent "death". Sure, we
can expect that if (say) you "die of old age" then someday that
condition will become curable in the sense that you live much longer
and eventually "die" of something else. What that something else
may be is likely to be something that does not even exist now.

This hardly provides an argument against cryonics. But it does provide
an argument against any attempt to make it look like a religion. In
terms of the science that we have now and will produce in the future,
we can approach immortality but (by the nature of the beast!) never
really reach it. 

And in terms of what we really want, it's probably the best we can
get. What I would say to anyone who believes that cryonics touches
on religion is simply the argument that it does not and cannot,
and should be evaluated as a medical procedure. I  mean this not
because it is recognized as one by many doctors, or has become 
popular as one, but because it IS one. It continues to be one
because it uses the same criteria as any technology ... not by
any vote, but by plain fact.

		Best  wishes and long long life,

			Thomas Donaldson

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