• IF doctors are going to be allowed to kill patients as assisted dying supporters want then one useful aspect could benefit those who have signed up for cryonic suspension.

At the moment it is illegal for terminally ill persons to ask a doctor (or anyone) to kill them on the site of a cryonics suspension facility – thus enabling appropriate procedures to be promptly commenced.

If assisted dying becomes law there is no reason why, with safeguards, this shouldn’t take place in such facilities in order to optimise brain functioning when patients are restored to life.

There are currently no cryonic suspension facilities in the UK although some undertakers have taken the trouble to learn about it and are willing to implement correct protocols before shipping patients abroad.

MICHAEL ZEHSE, SE15