The Rights the Dead Should Have

I often wonder how our society came to have the position it takes regarding the rights of individuals after death is pronounced. Namely, no rights at all. The same rights an Alcor member has now, but I digress. Back to the subject, the next of kin can decide the fate of the disposal of your body and brain, and they seem most places to be able to do it without regard to your expressed wishes, should they choose to do so. Some protection appears to be afforded if you are a whole body specimen donated under the UAGA, but that is about it.

Now to a bit of hypocrisy. Cryonics organizations have historically accepted "last minute cases" where the next of kin decides their loving Stan or Mildred should be cryopreserved, and often without any regard to what Stan or Mildred have expressed as their wishes prior to their demise. These are the same cryonics organizations who go into hissy fits when a next of kin decides they want their loved one buried or cremated, instead of cryopreserved as they had previously arranged for.

IMHO, both of the above perspectives and scenarios are entirely wrong - morally and ethically - and should be so legally. Cryonics organizations should adopt firm policies: No patients accepted who have not personally signed an application. No patients accepted unless fully funded like other members of the cryo organization are expected to be. Period. No Exceptions, celebrity or otherwise.

Sadly, instead of discussion of the above basic important issue, we hear stories about one cryonics organization whose top leaders recently spent nearly an hour in a meeting trying to decide whether to accept as a patient somebody's dead relative who had actually been buried in the ground for several months! Not just hypocrisy, folks -- a total lack of perspective and focus on what cryonics should be about. Which is: A chance to extend life for those who clearly want it and have made their own arrangements in advance for it.

Get real,

FD