X-Message-Number: 26787
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2005 13:47:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jeff Davis <>
Subject: Please, it's not suicide!

Cryofolk,

Please try to avoid use of the term "suicide" when
referring to the deliberate, self-initiated suspension
of biochemical activity for the purpose of and as the
first step in cryogenic preservation and long term
storage(cryonic suspension). 

Please try to find another term and use it
consistently.  Doing so routinely will help to
memetically de-wacko-ize the perception of cryonics. 
Sophisticated techniques of persuasion are all well
and good, but consider the tried and true low-tech
approach of deliberate and consistent repetition.

Eventually, cryonic suspension will be accepted as a
medical procedure, comparable to pre-operative
anesthesia, implemented to professional standards by
professionals, as directed by the patient or other
competent authority.
   
Suicide is 'default' terminology, and carries with it
substantial negative baggage.  First among these is
the pain, desperation, and despair which makes
"suicide"  a decision coerced--not chosen--by torture.
  Then, of course the intention is to die--as in
permanently ended, irretrievably gone, irreversibly
oblivionized.

Cryonics and the intentions of cryonicists are 
precisely the opposite: the optimism of life, the
maintenance or restoration of health, and the eventual
nullification of death.

It's not suicide.

Best, Jeff Davis

    "We need to remind people that `aging' is just
    the traditional word contingently associated 
    with physical decay due to the breakdown of 
    cellular maintenance mechanisms, accumulated 
    unrepaired damage, etc." 
                        Damien Broderick



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