X-Message-Number: 28156
From: 
Subject: British Columbia Anti-Cryonics Law Update
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 19:00:28 US/Eastern

  The letter from Janet Ricciutti -- who is the 
Executive Director of the British Columbia 
Funeral Service Association -- has provoked 
bgwowk to post comments on another forum which
I have his permission to reproduce.

  People outside British Columbia can easily
be seen only as lobbyists, whereas people living
in British Columbia are seen by officials as 
constituents. And they are also seen as consumers.

  BC's anti-cryonics law was originally designed as 
consumer protection -- to protect consumers from 
predatory marketing. Those lobbying for change from 
outside of the Province can be seen as agents of 
marketing. On the other hand, consumers from within 
British Columbia protesting the lack of accessibility 
to cryonics services are likely to get a much more
favorable response, insofar as these are the 
people the government is supposed to be protecting.

   I have been encouraging everyone to write to 
BC officials, particularly those in BC. But the 
advice of bgwowk seems to be that the writing 
should come entirely from people in British Columbia 
and that lobbying from those outside of BC is
counterproductive. I can empathize with this, but
I don't seem to have had much effect on getting
many people from anywhere to write. If cryonicists
living in BC would get in the habit of periodically
writing BC officials to protest limitations
on access to cryonics services, it would be of
great benefit to all BC cryonicists as well as
to cryonicists everywhere insofar as British
Columbia is setting a terrible example which others
may be tempted to emulate when and if the next Ted 
Williams-type media circus happens.

                            -- Ben Best 

  bgwowk wrote:

> Ben, I think you are missing the key revelation of her letter. I believe it
> is this:
>
>       Quote:
>
> >      I have responded to
> >      these telephone calls for the past 15 years and I have never received
> >      one telephone call from either a consumer wishing to obtain these
> >      services from a funeral director or a funeral director requesting
> >      information about purchasing the appropriate supplies or equipment to
> >      provide such a service. The only enquiries and calls I have received
> >      are from the very active lobbyists representing both the US Cryonics
> >      institutes and one or two of their lobbying members.
> 
>
> She feels that she is being pressured by outside commercial interests and
> "their lobbyists" rather than by BC residents actually wanting cryonics
> service. This is not unlike what we recently saw in the JREF cryonics debate
> where there are "consumers to be protected," and any consumer who has
> decided that they want cryonics is no longer a consumer, but part of the
> "cryonics lobby" that consumers need to be protected from.
>
> I think it is vital that people writing BC officials make clear that they
> are BC residents, and that this law interferes with their ability to obtain
> even simple cryonics services from funeral directors such as packing in ice
> and shipping. The apparent prohibition of performance of specific
> preparative services is practically a restriction on freedom of religion for
> those BC residents who believe in this manner of disposition. BC residents
> need to make this very personal to be heard as a local consumer trying to
> gain the cooperation of a specific funeral director rather than being seen
> as a mere "lobbyist for the cryonics industry".

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