X-Message-Number: 24298
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 18:35:40 +0200
Subject: Re: Suicide prevention
From: David Stodolsky <>

On Friday, June 25, 2004, at 03:42  PM, Tim Freeman wrote:

> Occasionally people get depressed and commit suicide, and it seems to
> me that cryonics organizations should get involved in trying to
> prevent this scenario if the person involved is signed up for
> cryonics.  However, I don't recall seeing pointers to suicide
> counselors in cryonics literature or in sign-up materials, or other
> visible things to deter suicide.  Is this an important omission, or am
> I just incorrectly grasping the scope of what a cryonics organization
> should do?


Since a cryonics organization gets a new patient at legal death, suicide
prevention could be seen as a conflict of interest. Counselors would 
best be provided by a 'religious' organization that benefits from 
keeping the person animate.

However, most religious organizations oppose suicide, even when from 
the standpoint of cryonics it would be appropriate. Venturism could 
play this type of role when appropriate, but since it is limited to 
persons signed up for cryonics, the advice would be limited to avoiding 
any delays in cool down, etc. A religious organization that encouraged 
cryonic suspension, but which didn't require persons to be signed up, 
could play further role. In the case of a person contemplating suicide, 
it could also advise that suspension arrangements be completely, before 
taking any action. This would likely vastly reduce the chances of 
inappropriate suicide.

There are a lot of potential legal and publicity complications with the 
above, which are beyond the scope of this message. However, a religious 
organization advocating cryonics, would certainly be in a position to 
influence opinion and policy related to such potential complications.


The World Health Organization predicts that by the year 2020, major 
depression will be the second most burdensome condition worldwide. 
While manic-depression is a drug treatable medical condition, 
depression is most effectively treated through lifestyle changes, such 
as exercise, cognitive-behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, etc. 
Thus, an organization striving to reduce depression and inappropriate 
suicide would encourage lifestyle changes.

Offering an alternative way of life would also make cryonics an easier 
'sell'. According to recent work in existential psychology, when 
persons are reminded of their mortality, they spontaneously push the 
thought out of consciousness. This is later followed by automatic 
reinforcement of their current mortality defensive beliefs. Thus, 
direct presentation of cryonics as an option would be expected to yield 
a negative response. I have seen this repeatedly when presenting people 
with "Physical Immortality" or other cryonics literature.

Religious organizations typically offer a package of benefits, 
including a  community of like minded persons, performance of marriages 
and other life stage transition rituals, and death transcendence. Thus, 
it can offer new members immediate positive benefits, as well as the 
avoidance of time remote negatives. Even for persons that find cryonics 
a more valid method of coping with death anxiety than symbolic acts 
(such as prayer, etc.) there remain major motivational barriers to sign 
up.

A religious organization supportive of cryonics would best include a 
package that could include cell storage, programs for disease 
avoidance, and social, political (eg, promotion of research on cell 
cloning), and economic support functions. This would make possible 
grades of membership, where the first might include storage of cord 
blood for a child, for example. Such an approach would have both 
tactical benefits, increasing the likelihood of sign up, and strategic 
benefits, increasing the membership ready to defend organizations in a 
political crisis.


dss

David S. Stodolsky    SpamTo: 

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