X-Message-Number: 22425 From: Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2003 08:55:50 EDT Subject: CI will prevail, but larger issue looms Like many of you, I was "surprised and disappointed" (to use David Ettingers lawyerly understatement) by the actions of one or several Michigan "functionary(s) against the Cryonics Institute. In fact, I was more than this. I was "outraged and disgusted" at the actions of the state. With the good and professional people working with CI, however, we know this will be worked out. CI will pay their necessary licensing (extortion?) to the powers that be, define themselves legally as a mortuary, funeral home, cemetery, scientific research facility, etc. And this will blow over. In all likelihood, cryonics will once again generate substantial free public relations, and higher public awareness. Since most humans on the planet have NO idea that cryonics is even an OPTION, much less an affordable one, it can be argued that almost ANY publicity is a net positive for cryonics at this stage of the industry. And I have total confidence in David and Robert Ettinger, David Pascal, Andy Zawacki and other CI executives to handle the press and the government in this matter. But, the larger issue pointed up by this outlandish action by the state of Michigan is pretty obvious. We are an astonishingly small and dangerously powerless group of cryonicist visionaries. We are engaging in personal choices which a large number of people are very uncomfortable with. Many people would consider the hubris we have to fight "natural" death to be sinful. These folks could theoretically prohibit the very practice of cryonics, and do this in any number of ways. A simple addendum tacked onto a Federal bill in Congress, lobbying at the state level by Christian fundamentalists, additional bad press causing cryonics to be overregulated by the state causing huge costs which no cryonics organization could bear... the list goes on. The take home message here is that another Cryonics summit is needed, with part of the agenda involving "Scenario planning" to help protect this vital and still embryonic movement. I would be willing to participate in such a gathering, and add my thoughts along with many people with much bigger brains than me. And/or we can have a thread on Cryonet devoted to this. But this would not accomplish as much as was accomplished at the last "Cryosummit." Observations? Best Regards and Long Happy (and regulator free) life to all, Rudi Hoffman Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=22425