Re: Cryonics and organ donation

From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Fri Apr 07 2000 - 14:03:06 MDT


> So what you are saying is that you don't currently have a protocol for
> neurosuspension customers to simulataneously have their heads guillotined and
> suspended, while the rest of the organs get harvested? I think thats kind of
> short sighted, don't you think? What better way to pay for your suspension than
> off of auctioned off body parts? If you made this legal, suspension would
> basically be free, so the perceived cost barrier (for those who don't think of,
> or don't want to have to keep paying on, a life insurance policy just for the
> suspension) is totally eliminated. Set this up as an accepted medical procedure,
> and it can simply be a non-cash transaction between an organ donor center and
> the donor. Donor centers might find it both profitable, and a good way to
> diversify, to merge with a cryonic suspension organization.

In the future when the medical and legal hurdles to this can be overcome,
that might be a great idea for neuro-suspensions. But today, suspensions
have to be done with the technology we have and under the legal system we
have or they don't get done. The technology makes donation problematic:
even neuros, for example, make use of the full-body circulatory system to
perfuse cryoprotectants, the whole body is frozen, and then "cephalic
isolation" is performed (with a chainsaw) on the frozen body. The legal
problems are worse.

There is also, of course, the uncertainty that neurosuspension will
even work. To be properly skeptical, I cannot rule out the possibility
that some interesting part of what I want to preserve as "me" exists
below my neck. Even if I intend to go the upload route, I can't rule
out that there might be interesting software there either.

--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC



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