X-Message-Number: 3036
Date:  Sun, 28 Aug 94 21:40:41 
From: 
Subject: CRYONICS -- B.C. antilaw


(The following is a recent letter from Dave Pizer, regarding the 
anti-cryonics law in British Columbia. At his request, I'm sending it out 
over Cryonet--Mike Perry.)



David S. Pizer
10444 N. Cave Creek Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85020
Aug. 23, 1994

British Columbia Chamber of Commerce
1607 700 West Pender St.
Vancouver, BC V6C 1G8

Dear Chamber of Commerce:

This letter is written in regard to Part 5, Section 57, "Arrangements 
Forbidden" of the BC Cemetery and Funeral Services Act (Bill 42), 
which reads:

"No person shall offer for sale or sell any arrangement for the 
preservation or storage of human remains based on cryonics, ir
radiation 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."

I live in the United States. I have visited BC and found it a very 
beautiful, refreshing place. It is (or used to be) a good place to spend a 
vacation and it was a good place to do business. (I operate an 
automobile servicing and parts business and would sometimes be 
invited to BC on transactions.) Cryonics, on the other hand, is very 
important to me and my loved ones. We think it is the best chance we 
have to survive to a future time, and we are very interested in this 
possibility. Even though the technology of cryonics is unproven, it calls 
for no violation of physics as understood today. In our opinion it has a 
better chance of making possible our future revival and immortality 
than a putative supernatural agent, for instance--something that is 
also unproven.

We feel very strongly that cryonics, despite its uncertainties, is the 
best choice for us, and that we are exercising legitimate rights in 
making that choice. To ban this practice as your repressive legislation 
does is as offensive and diabolical, in our eyes, as voiding religious 
freedom or persecuting certain ethnic groups. It is totalitarian, cruel 
and malicious. In effect, you become our would-be murderers, and 
especially, the killers of anyone in your province with the foresight to 
make the rational choice we have made.

Accordingly, so long as this law of yours remains on the books I will 
refuse to set foot in British Columbia, and will advise my friends and 
associates not to visit your province. I hope this rights-denying, life-
negating legislation can soon be changed.

Sincerely,

David S. Pizer

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