X-Message-Number: 3844
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1995 22:42:12 -0500
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <>
Subject: Re: Training, professionalism, and the media

> John de Rivaz asserts "if cryonics ... was 'professionalised' in the
> same way medicine and the law have been, then prices will rise by ten
> to fifteen times the current norm."  I would be interested in knowing
> what he is basing the assertion on, and why "ten to fifteen times"?

Medicine and the law are "professionalized" in that nobody may practice
either without extensive training in a very expensive government-
approved school.  And there is a quota of how many doctors and lawyers
there can be.  This quota is maintained by the doctors and lawyers to
keep their incomes high by artificially creating a scarcity.

Also, only government-approved medicines and medical devices may be
used in medicine.  These tend to be much more expensive than similar
substances and devices that don't have government approval for medical
uses.

I suppose the same could happen with cryonics.  If the government were
to come to officially believe that cryonics patients were alive, then
that makes cryonics a medical procedure, and implies that only doctors
may do cryonics, and that only government-approved medical-grade
water, glycerol, etc, could be used in a suspension.  There's no use
complaining to the government that this "consumer protection" would
certainly cost more lives than it saves, by pricing almost everyone
out of the market.  This is already true of existing medical care, and
they don't give a flying.

They'd rather define even the wealthiest Americans as being in need of
government financial support for the necessities of life.  And use this
to impose new taxes and new controls.  Perhaps in 20 years, cryonics
will be free to everyone who meets government approval, priced out of
reach of everyone else except Bill Gates, and we will all be taxed to
support goverment-paid cryonics for the approved politically-correct
elite.



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