X-Message-Number: 33185
Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2011 14:23:03 -0700
Subject: pre-mortem suspension
From: Jeff Davis <>

For about tern years I have been wanting to submit this post.  For
whatever reasons, I have not.

The whole notion of waiting for a patient's "natural" death before
performing his/her suspension is monstrous, illogical, bizarre,
incomprehensible, and outrageous (Feel free to add your own favorite
characterizations.).  The suffering of patient, family, and
care-givers is enabled by this requirement, where it would be
eliminated by pre-mortem suspension.  The quality, and with it perhaps
the effectiveness of the suspension is clearly compromised by
"requiring" the patient to deteriorate  to the point of death.  Add,
then, to the deterioration which leads to "death", the absence of
robust circulation, which might facilitate perfusion, and the
inevitable ischemia arising from the inevitable time lag between
declaration and initiation of cryonic procedures.

If cryonics practice adopted the patient care/patient rights standards
of conventional medicine, then each patient would have the right to
decide the nature and timing of their medical care and what procedures
are to be carried out, and when, so as to maximize the quality of the
outcome.  You do recognize that I'm pointing out the most fundamental
of human rights here, don't you?

I acknowledge the legal context which "forces" those currently
providing suspension services -- and those currently seeking those
services -- to wait until "natural death", but that is no excuse for
the entire cryonics community to act as if this were the right and
proper thing to do.  Waiting to die before initiating the medical care
you need to save your life is grotesque.

The entire cryonics community -- IN MY VIEW -- should declare
pre-mortem suspension the optimal practice, designate it the standard
of care, and campaign vigorously for the legal right to choose same.

Best, Jeff Davis

     "Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
                                     Ray Charles

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