X-Message-Number: 4547 From: (Thomas Donaldson) Subject: Re: CryoNet #4524 - #4527 Date: Sat, 24 Jun 1995 20:57:17 -0700 (PDT) Hi again! With respect to the discussion of whether or not the "public" (whatever that is) would try to ban cryonics if people came to us wanting to be deanimated and frozen at the same time (or killed and then frozen, in the notions of that "public"): This problem can only occur if someone comes to us with that request shortly before they become terminal, or while they are terminal. If a member has been a member of a cryonics society for 5 years before they had any hint disease, then such a claim looks rather weak. I think anyone interested in cryonics right now should take that fact seriously into consideration. If you want to be frozen, JOIN SOME SOCIETY NOW! No cryonics society has yet prevented anyone from resigning and joining another cryonics society. In that sense, just whom you join doesn't even matter. But if you wait until you're terminal, you may find many options closed off. About the FDA and Republicans: I would say to anyone who asked my political affiliation that I am not a Republican, Democrat, or even a Libertarian without very heavy qualifications. Hence I can feel happy that the FDA is abolished, even though I remain wary about other things the Republicans might do. AS for Libertarians, my major problem with that philosophy comes from the fact that people, even adults, simply aren't always capable of dealing with their affairs in the best manner. The best example of that is those who suffer from a serious mental illness (though a lot of psychiatry is bunk, I find it impossible to believe that all of it is. I think there is such a thing as mental illness). It would naturally be comforting to libertarians if such problems could be made to go away ... but they can't, Szasz notwithstanding. Nor do I want this observation to be twisted into a belief that current US society deals very well with mental illness: it does not. But there IS a problem there. (One way it might be handled would be for such illnesses all to be found to have a chemical basis. That would give a clearly objective test, unable to be distorted as many judgements of mental illness are today. We may be moving in that direction, too, but the final outcome remains uncertain). So yes, I would be very happy if the FDA were abolished outright. But I don't trust the Republicans on other things at all. Long long life, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4547