Volume 4, Issue 1
May 2009


Cryo-Documentation: Vital Statistics

Loraine J. Rhodes, CLA

Page 2 of 3

The Standard US Birth and Death Certificate

When considering membership to a cryonics facility, it is essential to build a strong foundation within what I’ve deemed, Cryo-Documentation: Vital Statistics, employing a relatively simple ‘bottom-up’ approach to preserving your identity. The objective is to build a foundation such that a person’s identity remains intact, paramount to preserving assets during biostasis and most crucial at the time of revival from biostasis. This may be accomplished by utilizing existing areas within the birth and death certificate applications, especially within the ‘[x] Other’ box.     

Under Mr. Charles Rothwell [1], Director of Vital Statistics, the National Center for Health Statistics is the administrative body that governed the most recent revision to the current, standard birth and death certificates. The two most recent revisions to these certificates were in 2003, and 1989.

The U.S. Standard Certificate of Live Birth had 11 revisions during the 20th century.[2] In 1998, a consensus from the states dictated a revision was needed, promoting the formation of the Panel to Evaluate the U.S. Standard Certificates and Report Parent Group. This group, composed of representatives from 10 states, chaired by Patricia Potrzebowski, Ph.D. of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Health, met numerous times over 16 months (much like the committees formed under the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform Laws [3]), and reviewed suggestions and data from experts and private citizens based on existing and past information, including a Mother’s and a Facility Worksheet.

With the acceptance and practice of full or partial body anatomical gifts to cryonics facilities such as Alcor, the Cryonics Institute, and Suspended Animation, Inc., and the need for asset preservation trusts and like instruments, time is once again of the essence to review the accepted information contained within the current birth and death certificate applications to ensure consistency with the legal and technological probability of future revivals or revivifications.[4] This may be accomplished by petition, not necessarily for form revisions, but updating the information accepted within the forms.

To achieve this safeguard, it is paramount for the law and technology to work in unison.

A possible way to document a cryonic preservation is the issuance of two different, yet standard death certificates. While both options would adhere to the federal regulations governing the ‘disposition’ of human remains, only one considers future technology and the probability of revival from biostasis.

Option one: The issuing of an Irreversible Cessation of Life (ICL) Certificate for a person whose intention is to be cremated, embalmed, and/or buried. (Please note; embalming is not always a necessary procedure – unless regulation/law so dictates for a body transported across county or state lines). If a body is buried or cremated within a certain number of days after pronouncement of death, an election for topical chemical treatment only is an acceptable practice.

Option two: The issuing of a Reversible Cessation of Life (RCL) Certificate for a person who desired to make a full or partial body anatomical gift to a known cryonics facility. 

Petitions by lay persons as well as qualified experts and professionals in the fields of law, technology, medicine, and science to Mr. Charles Rothwell, asking how, under the current process, the first revivification of a person from biostasis would be certified may well promote the necessary cryonics consideration and the research related re-evaluation of these applications and forms to accommodate this foreseeable near-future and precedent-setting occurrence. Today, though promising, cryonic revival remains speculative, however; as with other speculative opportunities (such as a state lottery), you gotta be in it, to win it! Cryonicists believe that any chance at life, no matter how slim, is better than no chance at all.

Expanding the recognition of cryonic preservation as a natural and viable means to extending human life, and the first successful revivifications that lay ahead, it is paramount for the law to lead and not follow in technology’s footsteps.

Given the increasing biological and cellular outlook on death, the Encyclopedia of Death and Dying [5] poses the question: “How many and what kind of life processes can continue to exist and still make it credible to say that death has occurred? [A] comprehensive definition of death would have to include the basic processes of living and dying that are inherent in cells, tissues, and organs as well as the larger organism.” Further insight offers consideration to “…the lower-life processes that continue after the larger organism has died.”

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Sample of utilizing existing fields within the Standard US Death Certificate

Utilizing the existing areas within a death certificate application, especially the ‘[x] Other’ box will help to ensure the continuity of a cryonicist's personal identification. If a cryonicist's personal information and identity remain intact, it may be returned to him or her upon revival. Should a revival attempt prove unsuccessful and that person is deemed permanently lost or experiences an irreversible cessation of life, that person’s vital information may then be listed within a ‘death index’ or placed within a pool for subsequent recirculation and their trust distributed consistent with his or her will, or absent a will, by the laws of intestacy within his or her last state of domicile.

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The latest (2006/2007) Uniform Anatomical Gift Act revision includes [6]:

 

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By utilizing the fields currently available on the rear of the standard US driver’s license (above), a person may designate whether he or she desires to make a full body or neuro anatomical gift and limit it to a specific reason, such as cryonic preservation or biostasis. As stated under the revised UAGA, such documentation survives the expiration or revocation of a license and/or will.

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Footnotes 

1. Charles Rothwell, Director of Vital Statistics at the National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, 3311 Toledo Road, MS Room 7311, Hyattsville, Maryland 20783-2003.

2. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/vital_certs_rev.htm  May 1, 2008 7:34PM EST 

3. National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws - http://nccusl.org/Update/  May 21, 2008 1:09PM EST

4. Revivificationn. also, revival, resurgence, and revitalization - bringing again into activity and prominence. http://www.wordreference.com/definition/revivification  May 1, 2008 8:00PM EST

5. Definitions of Death. Encyclopedia of Death and Dyinghttp://www.deathreferences.com/...  4/29/08 10:19PM EST

6. Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (2006) SECTION 5. MANNER OF MAKING ANATOMICAL GIFT BEFORE DONOR’S DEATH.  http://www.anatomicalgiftact.org/...  May 7, 2008 6:05PM EST

 

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