I find it doubtful that the distinction is so clear-cut. Low-temperature surgery (which involves perfusion with cold saline to lower body temperature and stop the heart) is not considered embalming.
Hah, I was hoping no one would think to point that practice out. It’s not clear that the monk should be considered embalmed while still alive, and most of them fail, but it’s pretty close.
Embalming is done for aesthetic, emotional, or possibly religious reasons. Autopsy is done to gather empirical data about the patient (for example, establishing cause of death). Surgery is done for the purpose of keeping the patient alive.
Of these three, at least given intent as the main consideration, a cryonics procedure designed to induce vitrification of the brain (or, failing that, a lesser cryoprotected state) falls more under the category of surgery than either of the others. Probable outcome can be thought of separately, but all it takes is a successful argument in court to establish legally that the patient will probably, or at least with some reasonable and relevant level of plausibility, recover from vitrification.
Intent itself does carry legal weight (in my understanding at least—culpability for damages, degrees of homicide, etc), so the mere fact that cryopreservation implies strong intent of keeping the patient alive could easily count for something, even in the absence of an explicit judgement regarding likelihood of success. (Nonetheless I would not consider the argument having a snowball’s chance of succeeding in court without a decent case for plausibility, hence my emphasis on vitrification.)
In the event that a court decides to recognize this difference in intent (and/or probable outcome) as significant, there could be profound consequences. Premortem cryonics could be effectively legalized by judicial fiat, and yet providers might still fear to do it on legally living patients despite the legality (and extreme medical advisability) due to the chance of malpractice suit from a grieving or vengeful family.
Specially crafted laws are probably needed to make sure that this can be done without undue burden on providers or undue risk to patients, clearly delineating responsibilities and liabilities. Other issues like life insurance payments (an important source of cryonics funding at this time), dissolution of debts and contracts, inheritance, and various other events that normally happen at death, should also be accounted for in a good piece of non-death-presuming cryonics legislation.
Despite the lack of such laws (even seriously proposed, as far as I know), a ruling that makes vitrification something utterly different from embalming is not especially far-fetched. It’s literally just a matter of some judge listening to an argument about information-theoretic death, comparing that to what’s known about vitrification, and coming to the conclusion that cryonicists are neither completely crazy nor religiously motivated, but actually doing something rational with the intent to save lives.
Legally, vitrification is embalming. :(
I find it doubtful that the distinction is so clear-cut. Low-temperature surgery (which involves perfusion with cold saline to lower body temperature and stop the heart) is not considered embalming.
Is there any form of embalming which takes place while people are still legally alive?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu
Hah, I was hoping no one would think to point that practice out. It’s not clear that the monk should be considered embalmed while still alive, and most of them fail, but it’s pretty close.
Embalming is done for aesthetic, emotional, or possibly religious reasons. Autopsy is done to gather empirical data about the patient (for example, establishing cause of death). Surgery is done for the purpose of keeping the patient alive.
Of these three, at least given intent as the main consideration, a cryonics procedure designed to induce vitrification of the brain (or, failing that, a lesser cryoprotected state) falls more under the category of surgery than either of the others. Probable outcome can be thought of separately, but all it takes is a successful argument in court to establish legally that the patient will probably, or at least with some reasonable and relevant level of plausibility, recover from vitrification.
Intent itself does carry legal weight (in my understanding at least—culpability for damages, degrees of homicide, etc), so the mere fact that cryopreservation implies strong intent of keeping the patient alive could easily count for something, even in the absence of an explicit judgement regarding likelihood of success. (Nonetheless I would not consider the argument having a snowball’s chance of succeeding in court without a decent case for plausibility, hence my emphasis on vitrification.)
In the event that a court decides to recognize this difference in intent (and/or probable outcome) as significant, there could be profound consequences. Premortem cryonics could be effectively legalized by judicial fiat, and yet providers might still fear to do it on legally living patients despite the legality (and extreme medical advisability) due to the chance of malpractice suit from a grieving or vengeful family.
Specially crafted laws are probably needed to make sure that this can be done without undue burden on providers or undue risk to patients, clearly delineating responsibilities and liabilities. Other issues like life insurance payments (an important source of cryonics funding at this time), dissolution of debts and contracts, inheritance, and various other events that normally happen at death, should also be accounted for in a good piece of non-death-presuming cryonics legislation.
Despite the lack of such laws (even seriously proposed, as far as I know), a ruling that makes vitrification something utterly different from embalming is not especially far-fetched. It’s literally just a matter of some judge listening to an argument about information-theoretic death, comparing that to what’s known about vitrification, and coming to the conclusion that cryonicists are neither completely crazy nor religiously motivated, but actually doing something rational with the intent to save lives.
Yeah, this is going to be a mess. Esp. with regards to inheritance and insurance. Worried about cutting off funding for anybody but the very rich.