X-Message-Number: 5018 Date: 20 Oct 1995 06:19: U From: "Norton, Brook" <> Subject: How avoid damage at death? On Cryonet I've read a lot about brain tissue damage that happens within a few hours of deanimation. And Darwin has made some comments about brain tissue damage that occurs in the hours before death. In the hours where breathing and circulation are so weak that tissue begins deteriorating prior to the stopping of the heart beat. It seems such a shame to have to take this insult before being cooled down. So I was wondering how one would minimize it. You'd like to let the suspension team cool you down while you were still alive, but of course thats still illegal. I've heard terminal patients can refuse food and water to accelerate death. Does the accelerated death decrease brain damage prior to death by shutting the body down in a few days instead of nature's course of a few weeks or months (for terminal patients)? Or does death by dehydration also have the same couple of hours of very low metabolism prior to death, and thereby deliver the same insult as a "natural death"? Is there a better way to hasten death whereby the brain tissue experiences less unoxygenated time? A way that (like dehydration) is not considered suicide, and therefore not subject to autopsy? Brook Norton Aerodynamics Engineer McDonnell Douglas Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5018