[LINK] The Cryopreservation of Kim Suozzi

http://www.alcor.org/blog/?p=2716

With the inevitable end in sight – and with the cancer continuing to spread throughout her brain – Kim made the brave choice to refuse food and fluids. Even so, it took around 11 days before her body stopped functioning. Around 6:00 am on Thursday January 17, 2013, Alcor was alerted that Kim had stopped breathing. Because Kim’s steadfast boyfriend and family had located Kim just a few minutes away from Alcor, Medical Response Director Aaron Drake arrived almost immediately, followed minutes later by Max More, then two well-trained Alcor volunteers. As soon as a hospice nurse had pronounced clinical death, we began our standard procedures. Stabilization, transport, surgery, and perfusion all went smoothly. A full case report will be forthcoming.

Previously on LW: Aug 18, Aug 25, Aug 27, Jan 22.

http://www.alcor.org/blog/?p=2716

With the inevitable end in sight – and with the cancer continuing to spread throughout her brain – Kim made the brave choice to refuse food and fluids. Even so, it took around 11 days before her body stopped functioning. Around 6:00 am on Thursday January 17, 2013, Alcor was alerted that Kim had stopped breathing. Because Kim’s steadfast boyfriend and family had located Kim just a few minutes away from Alcor, Medical Response Director Aaron Drake arrived almost immediately, followed minutes later by Max More, then two well-trained Alcor volunteers. As soon as a hospice nurse had pronounced clinical death, we began our standard procedures. Stabilization, transport, surgery, and perfusion all went smoothly. A full case report will be forthcoming.

Previously on LW: Aug 18, Aug 25, Aug 27, Jan 22.

This is expected evidence. Cryobiologists opposed to the practice have consistently labeled cryonics as flawed on grounds of dealing with frozen bodies, not due to cryoprotectant toxicity. They have failed to attack the strongest version of the argument, indicating that they either do not understand it (e.g. PZ Myers conflating E-VT with K-VT) or do not have sufficient doubt about vitrification to stake their reputation on it.
In a criminal case, the burden of proof is on the accuser, not the accused. Assisted suicide is quite illegal (and even considered a form of murder) in many jurisdictions. Therefore the question of whether someone in such a jurisdiction is guilty by legal standards should rest on whether the patient can be proven dead beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt. I think this can easily be established for a straight-frozen person (due to severe structural damage to the cells), but not for a vitrified person.

You are free to support suicide / assisted dying, but this is a very different matter. The goal of cryonics is not to kill the patient or put an indefinite end to suffering, but to prolong life. That means that certain legal arguments against assisted suicide ("we do not want to make it okay to kill people on purpose") simply do not apply. Jurisdictions basing their laws against assisted suicide on those arguments may not be consistently opposed to cryonics.

beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt

This seems to be a blend of two common expressions: "beyond a reasonable doubt" (which is used as an evidence standard in criminal law) and "a shadow of a doubt" (which is not).

Could you clarify what you mean here?

1V_V13y

And what do they think of cryoprotectant toxicity? And cryoprotectant diffusion? And ischemia? [...] I don't think he did. I think he claimed that you need kinetic vitrification in order to preserve the relevant structure. [...] I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that any court would consider a vitrified body dead beyond reasonable doubt unless you provided some good evidence that it isn't. They aren't going to buy a "You can't prove it's dead". [...] Ah, sure, cryopreserved people are not dead, and vitrifying yourself while still alive is not suicide. And Heaven's Gate people didn't kill themselves, they boarded the alien spaceship following comet Hale-Bopp. You are entitled to believe whatever you like, but as long as you don't provide good evidence that there is a non-negligible chance that the human popsicles are going to be resurrected, sane people will keep considering them dead.