X-Message-Number: 3706 From: (Kevin Q Brown +1 201 386 7344) Date: 19 Jan 95 11:52:00 -0500 Subject: Re: Margaret and Paul Page 22 of the Jan. 14, 1995 issue of Science News included an article relevant to Mike Darwin's recent message about the risks of depression. The article's title is: Grief sometimes heads down a grievous path and the text begins: "When loved ones die, they leave behind a legacy of emotional pain. Many clinicians and researchers view depression as the most worrisome psychological fallout of bereavement, because the sense of personal worthlessness and despair typical of that condition can lead to suicide. ..." What should cryonics organizations do about this? Logically, having people cryopreserved rather than buried or cremated should be better, because they might come back. Emotionally, though, that may not be the case. When someone is cryopreserved, their status is ambiguous, kind of like a soldier missing in action. The person's _body_ isn't missing, of course, but, like the missing soldier, nobody knows whether the _person_ is coming back. It must be difficult to complete the grieving process in this situation. The grieving, too, gets held in suspension. Kevin Q. Brown "Mommy, Mommy! Where did Daddy go?" "Honey, he's on vacation. A long vacation..." Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=3706