X-Message-Number: 20365
From: "John de Rivaz" <>
References: <>
Subject: Re: Autopsy
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2002 16:10:52 +0100

> I'm all for cooperation. I was just real enthusiastic
> about learning that I could, in my state, set up proper
> controls over my body that could eliminate dangers
> of autopsy and delay.

We have somehow to get those in authority thinking how they **or their
descendants**  would feel if they realise that they have dissected someone
who may otherwise have been saved by cryonics. As someone on this list
pointed out a while back, it is a matter of public record who authorises and
performs post mortem dissections. So there is no need even for cryonics
societies to keep lists.

An analogous idea is the thought that the ancient Greeks could have made a
cylinder acoustic phonograph (like Thomas Edison) and recorded the voices of
(say) Socrates and Euripides for future generations. As far as I am aware no
ancient Greek thought of it, and their understanding of sound was probably
inadequate for such an invention. However such a device would not have
required an electronics industry, merely a skilled metal worker or
blacksmith. With hindsight we may say "silly people not to have thought of
it". In a future when cryonics is proven to work, people with hindsight may
say that everyone today who doubts it is "silly".

Even if all the existing cryonics societies and their patients are
"ransacked by the mob" the **idea** of cryonics cannot be destroyed, and the
rabble rousers of such a mob (or similar event) will no doubt be recorded in
history.

If in the future it is shown that cryonics **could have worked** then those
that organised such mobs will be villains of history, and their descendants
tarred with ignominy.

Like the relatives (not even children) of Adolf Hitler, they may decide to
edit their genes from the human race.

This sort of idea may worry people who have been given the personal power to
prevent cryopreservations. We cannot threaten them directly, this is merely
cranky. But somehow we have to get the idea across, into the collective
subconscious.

--
Sincerely, John de Rivaz:      http://www.deRivaz.com :
http://www.AlecHarleyReeves.com
http://www.longevity-report.com : http://www.autopsychoice.com :
http://www.cryonics-europe.org
http://www.porthtowan.com

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