X-Message-Number: 6388
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1996 17:24:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: passive suicide

     Ultimate disposition of the body of deceased humans is at present
 limited to cremation, rotting in the ground and cryonics. According to
 science the chances of an afterlife attendant to these three options are
 zero for cremation, zero for burial and are non-zero only for cryonics. 
 Thus two out of these three options constitute a passive form of suicide. 
     Definition of suicide: The act or an instance of intentionally
 killing oneself. 
     According to the definition of suicide failure to choose cryonics
 (life) over cremation/rotting is an act of suicide unless the existence
 of the former option is unknown. Arguments about the likelyhood of
 cryonics succeeding are all moot, since we require only a non-zero chance
 for success to classify cryonics as pro-life. To a rational mind cryonics
 obviously has a non-zero chance for success, therefore it is a pro-life
 option and the others are suicide. 
     Comments welcomed. 

     Further analysing the cryonics option one could break down the risks
 for failure to obtain an afterlife with this option as follows: 

     1. Damage occurring before freezing. This is called autolysis. 
        For this risk to be kept relatively low one would have to
 anticipate death and take steps to insure freezing is accomplished in a
 relatively short period of time after death. Cryonics companies attempt
 to acheive this. 
     2. Freezing damage. 
        For this risk to be kept relatively low perfusion of
 cryoprotectants is required after death and before freezing. Again
 cryonics companies attempt and usually achieve this. 
     3. Termination of storage due to financial failure. 
        This may be the most serious risk as revival technology will
 likely take a long time to develop. Cryonics companies at present are
 attempting to control for this risk by decreasing costs by using larger
 and more economical storage facilities. The possibility of using
 freeze-drying to decrease the requirement for low storage temperatures
 should be noted here. 
     4. Revival technology is never developed. 
        Humans do seem to be having a love affair with technology for the
 past few centuries. Considering human nature is such that humans have
 already done "crazy" things like putting a man on the moon the risk of
 revival technology never being developed can be roughly equated with the
 risk of humanity becoming extinct. The odds of this happening are
 hopefully much smaller than the other risks outlined here. 
     5. Revival technology is eventually developed, but is not used due to
 financial failure. 
        This risk also would seem to be relatively modest provided the
 financial failure is not such that storage is terminated. Provided
 storage is maintained long enough and given once again curious human
 nature, revival technology would likely be used even if all of the frozen
 "dead" are charity cases. 

      Unfortunately there exists one economic reason for not choosing life
 over death. Cryonics is not free and medicare does not pay for it. 
 Although some prices for cryonics can run to over $100,000 (usually paid
 for by life insurance) there do exist less expensive options. The
 Cryonics Institute for example does offer whole body cryonic suspension
 for a minimum of $28,000. 
 A yet less expensive option is also available from The American Cryonics
 Society. 

 Cryonics Institute
 email: 
 address: 24355 Sorrentino Court
          Clinton Township, MI
          USA 48035
 phone: 810-792-7062

 The American Cryonics Society
 email: 
 address: P.O. Box 1509
          Cupertino. CA
          USA 95015
 phone: 408-734-4200

 Other cryonics companies can be emailed at: 

 Alcor: 
 Cryocare: 
 Trans Time: 


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