X-Message-Number: 31025
Date: Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:55:47 -0400
From: 
Subject: A Remarkable Cryonics Novel

   Sometimes when I go on long trips I attempt to read
a book with a cryonics theme in airports and on the plane.
For my most recent trip I chose the novel LONG LIFE?
by Robert Begam:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0977986314/

    This novel proved to be too long for time spent in
airports and a flight across the country, but it was
a very unexpected read. The central theme of the book
is arguments for and against cryonics, placed in a
courtroom setting that is full of drama and intrigue.
Unlike many novels that trash cryonics, this one is
startlingly favorable to the practice.

    The heroine is a beautiful, unmarried physician
cryonicist who does a "pre-mortem suspension" when
a terminal AIDS patient begs her to help him get
the best chance for future life. Most of the story
follows a jury trial in which the heroine is charged
with murder. The claim that she had committed first
degree murder ("willful, intentional, premeditated
killing") is made incongruous by her sincere
commitment to extending life. The prosecution
goes overboard in charging that she was consciously
participating in a ghoulish money-making scam.

    As past president of the Association of Trial
Lawyers of America

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Association_for_Justice

the author is well qualified to write a book that
involves so many unexpected legal developments.
Even the most sophisticated cryonicist will find some
novel cryonics-related viewpoints. And I think
most cryonicists will be startled by the way that
the story ends.

    I do not understand why the author portrayed
cryonics as restricted to the super-rich. In the
beginning of the book we are told that minimum payment
is one million dollars, but much later in the book we
are told that expenses alone are one million dollars.
The cryonics facility has a golf course, marble lobby,
upholstered escalator and visitors are chauffeured around
in Rolls Royces. The reader is left with the impression
that cryonics is restricted to the wealthy elite.

   The scientific portrayal of cryonics in this book
leaves something to be desired. Although published
in 2008, the cryonics protocol involved glycerol and
cold silicone oil bath. A cryobiologist takes the
stand, reads the Society for Cryobiology by-law calling
for expulsion of those who freeze deceased persons. He
asserts that the claim that cryonics can work is
like saying that a frozen hamburger can be turned back
into a cow. Then nanotechnologists take the stand and
argue that nanotechnology can turn frozen hamburger
into a cow.

   On the witness stand one of the physicians who had
confirmed that the AIDS patient was terminal told the
court that he would have called the police had he
known that a "pre-mortem suspension" was planned.
When the heroine was on the witness stand and asked
about that physician's testimony she answered,
"Cryonics is a new science. Many people, including
doctors, are hostile. I can't say that I enjoy the
derision, but one gets used to it."

   The book presents the unfortunate and polarizing
view that divides the world between the cryonics-hostile
religious right and the cryonics-sympathetic liberal
Democrat atheists.   An anti-abortion spokesperson says,
"...only God gives life or takes life away, and man should
be  punished for playin' God, whether it's killin' babies
or resurrectin' queers..." Much of the jury selection process
by the defense is focused on excluding the religious
zealots. A religious right politician attempting to
exploit the trial in his election campaign is subjected
to some remarkable heckling by members of the press:
"Wouldn't you agree that damage done to the body by
freezing is not as bad as the damage done by not freezing
it?" and "if a family member wants to honor the wishes
of the decedent to undergo cryonic suspension, aren't
they likely to be more upset in their time of emotional
turmoil if their wishes and those of the deceased are
frustrated by your law?"

   Nonetheless, a surprised comes from the defense when
they quote Matthew 10:8 where Jesus tells his disciples
"Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead..."
What could Jesus mean in commanding his disciples to
"raise the dead" other than for them to become
cryonicists?!!!

    -- Ben Best

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