X-Message-Number: 22821 Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 12:52:08 -0500 From: Subject: Re: Parody Cryonics TV Commercial Re: John Krug's message below From Steve Bridge John suggests that the concept of neurosuspension scares people so much that it might threaten the existence of cryonics through governmental interference. Oddly, with some regulatory agencies in the past experience of Alcor, the opposite has been true. They only wanted to regulate the handling of whole bodies. Both in California and Arizona, the state health departments considered preserved heads or brains to be merely "organs" or "tissue samples", so long as the majority of the body was cremated or otherwise interred according to standard practices. It shows how important the government thinks your brains are. We had no problems with any governmental agencies in moving the neuropatients to Arizona. The only paperwork and governmental hassle we had to endure were over the whole bodies. That is not to say that some reporters and governmental officials do not freak out over the more "colorful" concept of neurosuspension, sensible as it might seem when patiently explained. Of course they do and we have to take that into account. However, I do not think that abandoning neurosuspension as an option and focusing only on whole bodies will much reduce, if at all, attempts to regulate or prevent cryonics. Newcomers to the concept of neurosuspension might wish to check out discussions on Alcor's web site (http://www.alcor.org), including a 1995 article by me at http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/neuropreservationoption.html Some of the details have changed but the basics are still applicable, I think. Steve Bridge Former Alcor President 1993-1997 Writing for himself and not for Alcor ********************* Message #22815 >From: (John Krug) >Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2003 18:02:39 -0800 (PST) >Subject: Parody Cryonics TV Commercial > >Hi: > I was wasting time channel surfing for something good to watch on >tv last night. >"Saturday Night Live", a well known comedy show, was on, so I decided >to tune in for a look... Then came on one of the parody commercials the >show is known for. It starts out with a few testimonials from people >who have found the "cure" for their various minor problems such as >baldness, skin wrinkles, etc... Then it goes on with a narration saying >something like "it may take 100 years >but "Cryogenix" is for you. They show a graphic of a transparent human >body, and superimpose the image of a whole body dewar. This done, >next, the head is shown being suddenly and roughly removed via the >animation and put into a smaller unit...The voice over comes on and >says: "If it's good enough for Ted Williams, it's good enough for >me"...I think this all was meant to be dark humor that SNL presents >often. I think the neuro option has backfired on cryonics...If I had >any powers of persuasion, I'd suggest that the practice be stopped. >Otherwise, I hope it's not too late and the powers that be will still >allow legal and secure whole body cryonic suspensions in the U.S. I >don't want libertarian philosophers to instigate absolutely certain >death on us all...My two cents.... Best Regards! John B. Krug Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=22821