X-Message-Number: 5970
Subject: Re: To Brad Templeton and Steve Harris
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 1996 13:48:09 -0600
From: Will Dye <>

Addressing Brad Templeton, Thomas Donaldson writes in CryoNet message #5967:

>[...] If
>you think that the US Federal and State governments would try to shut us down,
>so much for US Federal and State governments. [...]

>[...] All of the opposition you
>suggest is temporary and fickle. [...]

>[...]
>any cryonics society which took your position would raise serious questions 
>among cryonicists about whether or not its leaders had any intention at all of
>trying to preserve those in its care [...]

>[...]
>By saying what you have just said, you show me that you haven't understood 
>what we are trying to do. Cryonics is not a game, or some kind of passing fad.
>[...]

>[...] like someone in a sinking ship who
>looks into the lifeboats and worries that he might get grimy [...]

>[...] You see trivialities as important and critical issues as trivial. [...]

>[...]
>I hope that you will someday come to understand [...] 
>without that understanding you have marked your whole life with futility.
>[...]

>[...] Unlike YOUR society, cryonicists believe that individuals are important,
>and would not willingly sacrifice any individual for something so fleeting
>as public approval.  [...] 

>[...] EVERY cryonicist would feel the same on this issue. [...] 

PLEASE, this sort of flame mail is seriously hampering my efforts to 
convince my loved ones that cryonics is a sensible medical experiment, 
not a fringe movement by rabid loonies.  Mr. Donaldson is by no means 
the only one to post flames, so I don't want to sound as though I'm 
singling him out (come to think of it, most of his posts are excellent; 
the assisted suicide issue must have hit a nerve).

When I approach people about cryonics, the key hurdle has been 
credibility.  I realize that emotions are high because the stakes are 
high, but PLEASE, the stakes are high enough that we need to exert more 
self-control.  Nothing in Mr. Templeton's posts indicates that he 
regards cryonics as a game or passing fad.  He did not even say that 
he opposes doctor-assisted suicide, he merely failed to celebrate the 
recent decision and warned that it may be temporary.  There is no benefit 
in flaming him, much less the entire society.

>[...] as someone who actually sued to get that right for 
>assisted suicide, I will say [...]

For me, the key idea is that pre-mortem cryosuspension is not assisted 
suicide.  The current legal definitions may classify it as such, but in 
the long run, we should correct the legal definitions rather than 
re-describe cryonics as something that it is not.  Yes, I recognize 
that doctor-assisted suicide can be of benefit in the short run.  I'm 
not saying that a currently terminal patient should never use it.  My 
point is that Mr. Templeton and others (like myself) should not be 
_flamed_ for failing to embrace cryonics and assisted suicide as a 
singular, inseparable, unquestionably noble cause.  My larger point is
that all these matters can, and should be, discussed in a proper manner, 
not only to avoid the loony-fringe image, but also to facilitate the 
exchange of ideas.  

--Will [yes, that's my real name] Dye

-- 
William L. Dye (Will Dye)  |  It's O.K. to be anal retentive, as long as all 
  |  of the anuses that you retain are meticulously 
-or-   |  sorted, arranged, categorized, & cross-indexed.


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