X-Message-Number: 793
Date: Sat, 2 May 92 13:01:33 EDT
From:  (Perry E. Metzger)
Subject: CRYONICS: Freezing Heads

   from "Christopher Penrose" <>

   [...] I am extremely leary of the contemporary practice of  
   cephalic isolation (decapatation) as a means of reducing cryonic
   body storage costs; Alcor, a consortium of cryonic suspension
   advocates has already stored isolated and stored human heads at low
   temperatures.  Disposing of most of a patients body can only increase
   the emotional and neuronal shock that patients receive upon revival.

Your statement is misinformed.

Any conceivable technology capable of repairing the freezing damage
incurred would be able to build a duplicate of your original body if
you desired one. Your mad little senario (see below) about people
living without bodies are just that, mad. No one would propose such a
thing.

Consider that the damage done in current cryonic suspension could only
be repaired by a technology capable of direct molecular manipulation.
The task of taking your DNA and building a new body based on it is
hardly more difficult.

   Couple this with the implications of artificial heart technology
   successes and a scenario like the following is easily imaginable:

   Friday May 13, 2034, 10:34am:  Elizabeth Taylor was declared brain
   dead today after a grueling cryonic revival.  Elizabeth's isolated
   head was revived 18 months ago (October 26, 2032).  She regained
   consciousness in April 4th, 2033 after remaining in a deep coma.
   She complained repeatedly of phantom body sensations and begged for a
   "real" fleshy body.  She experienced multiple strokes, and became
   violently catatonic in late December 2033.  She never regained
   consciousness, and finally died of a massive stroke this morning.

No one is contemplating reviving a person that way.

Perry Metzger

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