X-Message-Number: 29272
Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2007 11:00:19 -0800 (PST)
From: 2Arcturus <>
Subject: reanimation

--0-62392987-1173294019=:40105


Well, they wouldn't appoint a lifelong guardian as in the case of retarded 
people -- I meant a guardian ad litem, to make specific decisions about a 
one-time resuscitation.
   

  If the patient's reanimation trust specifically empowers the trustees to make 
  decisions about resuscitation, then perhaps the courts might appoint/recognize
  the trustees as your guardians in this matter. One worries that the trustees 
  have an interest in not spending the trust money, and that the cryonics 
  patient is a stranger to them. 
   

  Would the general public fund a "reanimation" if there was no trust money and 
  if the cryonics organization couldn't afford to? Again, it depends on the 
  society's opinions, as channeled through the courts. One could easily imagine 
  the swirl of public opinion and "expert" ethicists - reanimation as 
  unjustified human experimentation? a religious sin against God? a violation of
  the Hippocratic oath - do no harm? a waste of scarce resources? an injustice 
  to the reanimated patient, who will be disoriented and alone in the society? 
  etc. etc.
   

  A cryonics organization might be worried about being sued by the patient or 
  the patient's surviving family or the patient's guardian if the "reanimation" 
  was not perfectly successful or not exactly what the patient wanted (even if 
  the patient changed his/her mind after-the-fact). If the surviving family or 
  trustees or even the government made the decision, this might let the cryonics
  org off the hook.
   

  I guess a practical upshot might be that you should make your wishes about 
  reanimation known in permanent documents to as many people as possible - your 
  family, your trustees, your cryonics org. It also might be helpful for 
  cryonicists to try to "guide" public opinion, to try to lay the groundwork for
  shaping future public policy when the issue finally blows into the 
  political/legal arena.
   
  Just my two-cents. Not a lawyer, politician, or ethicist.
   

  >>>>Knowing how much the legal profession charges for such work at present, 
  (eg 
with mentally impaired people) they are not going to be interested in doing 
this unless the reanimated person comes with a large reanimation trust they 
(ie bankers, lawyers, courts of protection and tax authorities) can plunder 
for payment.  If you don't have faith in the profession to do the right 
thing, then maybe this is an argument not to try and send wealth to the 
future.



 
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