X-Message-Number: 2459
Date: 14 Nov 93 04:50:28 EST
From: Mike Darwin <>
Subject: CRYONICS Re: Ebola virus

 Re: Ebola virus

The New Yorker article is accurate and deserves reading by anyone with an
interest in staying alive over the really long-haul and/or in
understanding "what's up next" in the infectious disease-human history
department.

Thr trouble with Ebola (the really virulent varieties) and several other
African and subsaharan etiologic agents is that NO level of containment
has proved effective.  Nobody works with these agents because invariably
they lead to heavy staff mortality.  

A cryonics member with one of these etiologic agents would not, I repeat,
NOT be embalmed, perfused, or otherwise handled to disinfect.  S/he would
be BURNED as well as everything s/he came into contact with.  An
alternative might be to drive the person in a well SEALED box which is in
turn loaded into a tractor trailer into a commercial (medical device)
radiation sterilizer (medical devices are often sterilized in sealed
tractor trailers in one big lot at a time) and baked the ******* hell of
him or her.  THEN you MIGHT consider freezing the person.

Frankly, if it were my judgment call and I were head of the DHS or CDC
task force I would cremate.   This would be particularly true if there
were no facilities for radiation sterilization that could accept a
tractor trailer. Also, keep in mind that a major consideration here is
the complexity of the disposition process.  Cremation is simple and
direct and RAPID and minmizes the number of people who will be involved
in the disposal chain. As soon as you start talking about radiation
sterilization, etc. you are talking about extra time, extra arrangements,
bureaucratic problems, private property rights, etc.  That is simply
unacceptable where public health is involved.

Some libertaraians may be screaming right about now: "what about the
rights of the patient?"  The short answer is that the patient has no more
rights than does a mentally ill person with an AK-47 cutting loose in a
crowded McDonalds.  Your rights go away when you infringe on those of
others whether "innocently" from disease or "maliciously" through
malefaction.

It has long been my contention that very few people in this world
understant the ultimate power of infectious disease and the extent to
which it has shaped history.  It is also my contention that people will
not act at all rationaly when the trouble starts, midway through, or even
(and especially) not at the end.  I have read first-hand accounts of
Plague throughout recorded history (most recently the diary of tanner from
Medieval Spain).  I have watched most of my cohorts die with AIDS.  The
only lesson I have really learned from all of this is what a marvelous
disclosing solution etiologic agents are for human stupidity and
irrationality.  In fact, I would go further and say that plague has taught
me that on average people (including myself) are VERY stupid and that we
only seem as bright as we are because we have an infrastructure which
keeps us from exercising our own judgment most of the time: an
infrastructure which is non-rationally pounded into us via socialization,
ritual and emotions.  It might be said that we aren't really so stupid
after all since we prize and use this infrastructure which we call
civilization.  Still, when it "cracks" it shows us for what we really are.

Having said the above some may think me a cynic or disparging of human
capabilities or intelligence.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 
That there are now 5 billion plus of us is a testimonial to the power and
genius of the human mind over time.  All I am saying is that disease shows
us how far we have to go and how sad our efforts can be.  At the same time
it is also a disclosing solution for that which is the BEST and the most
HEROIC in men.  It just that, statistically speaking, one of those
populations is rather large and the other rather small.  I will leave it
to the discerning reader to decide which is which.

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