X-Message-Number: 3019
From:   (Ralph Merkle)
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Subject: Cryonics in British Columbia
Date: 15 Aug 1994 18:58:04 GMT
Message-ID: <32odrs$>

I have mailed the following letter to:

Mr. Paul Snikars, Registrar
Cemeteries and Funeral Services Branch
Ministry of Housing, Recreation
    and Consumer Services
1019 Wharf Street
Victoria, British Columbia
V8V 1X4    CANADA

Dear Sir:
Please be aware that this is an open letter and has been posted to 
the internet.

It has come to my attention that the British Columbia Funeral
Services Act (Bill 42) under the heading "Arrangements Forbidden"
Part 5, Section 57, states:

    "No person shall offer for sale or sell any arrangement for the
    preservation or storage of human remains based on cryonics,
    irradiation or any other means of preservation or storage, by
    whatever name called, that is offered or sold on the expectation of
    the resuscitation of human remains at a future time."

And further that this Act is under review.  I would strongly urge 
you to delete Section 57, for a variety of reasons.

1)  No other nation, state, principality, territory etc. has a law 
against cryonics.  You are unique.

2)  Having published a technical article in the standard medical 
literature on the feasibility of cryonics, I can state that 
there are no such articles which claim that cryonics is infea-
sible (and I have looked for such articles with considerable 
care).  Thus, the standard medical literature does not support 
the hypothesis that the success of cryonics is impossible or 
improbable.

3)  It is repugnant in the extreme to deny the terminally ill pa-
tient the right to try and save his own life by using a method 
that has some chance of success when no other method has any 
chance of success whatsoever.  This is a clear violation of 
medical ethics.

The actions of British Columbia in this regard are well known in 
the cryonics community.  There have been numerous discussions of 
your unique law in the computer discussion groups devoted to 
cryonics and life extension.   Personally, I will avoid any course 
of action that might result in my presence in British Columbia.  
This would include insuring that any conference, business, or other 
activity that I might organize or be involved in would not take 
place in British Columbia, but would instead be sited elsewhere.  
I presume others involved with cryonics have a similar feeling.  
While this will no doubt have only a slight impact on the state of 
your economy, it is a slight negative impact with no compensating 
positive impact.

By simply deleting the offending law, you can eliminate the adverse 
publicity and ill will that it creates.  I suggest you do so.

	Yours truly,

	Ralph C. Merkle

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=3019