Humans dream of resurrecting lawless relative on the topic – 04/06/2024 – Science

When Luiz Felippe Dias de Andrade Monteiro died in 2012, a somewhat unusual process began in the Brazilian Judiciary.

On the one hand, his daughter argued that her father wanted her body to be cryopreserved – the technique that involves freezing organic matter at very low temperatures. In the case of humans, the hope is that, in the future, it will be possible to thaw it and bring the person back to life.

Monteiro’s other two daughters, however, wanted a traditional burial — the report was unable to locate his family. The case ended up at the STJ (Superior Court of Justice), where minister Marco Aurélio Bellizze was the rapporteur of the case and was in favor of protecting the right of the body to be kept cryogenically preserved in the United States.

Why did this decision occur?

This is what Carlos Henrique Félix Dantas, a doctoral student in civil law at Uerj (State University of Rio de Janeiro), explored in an article published in 2023.

The lawyer tells the Sheet This type of subject is not very common among lawyers, but the area even has a name: biolaw. The topic attempts to provide legal support for technologies that do not yet have a legal system.

And this is the case with cryonics. In fact, right at the beginning of the interview, Dantas reiterates that the most appropriate term is cryonics: this would be the name for when cryopreservation techniques are used on human bodies. In Brazil, there is no specific legislation to deal with cases like the one reported at the beginning of this report, but there are ways to get around this vacuum.

The best way for a person to ensure that their body will be cryopreserved is to add an existential clause to their will. “Through this clause, [é possível] provide guidelines on how you would like your body to be disposed of after death”, explains Dantas.

However, when there is no will with such a passage, as in Monteiro’s case, the most expected is that an investigation takes place to understand what the person’s wishes were before they died in order to preserve their will. In Monteiro’s example, this is what happened.

Dantas explains that one of the reasons why the STJ minister was in favor of the right to cryogenics was because one of Monteiro’s daughters had lived with her father for many years. This way, she could express her father’s wishes more assertively. And, according to her, it was cryopreservation.

The lawyer considers that not having specific legislation for cryonics is a gap, but he also says that other legal tools, such as investigating the individual’s will, are sufficient at least while the technique is still rare.

Furthermore, after the imbroglio involving Monteiro’s body, cryonics in humans was equated to cremation in Brazil by the STJ. Since then, the courts must consider this understanding if there are similar processes in the future.

Another gap in Brazilian laws concerns what to do with digital data from people who have died – these can be used to create simulations of the deceased, in an attempt to “extend” that person’s life. Not even the LGPD (General Data Protection Law) defines what should happen with such information after death, says Livia Teixeira Leal, professor at PUC-Rio and doctor in civil law.

The lawyer, who specializes in digital inheritance, sees this as an omission. But, just like cryonics in humans, there are ways to deal with this gap. This is the case of the protection of memory, which protects the image that a person built while still alive. “It’s not because a person died that we can violate their honor”, sums up Leal.

For example, if an artificial intelligence (AI) simulates a person who has already died in a way that does not match aspects that the individual was known for in life, the matter may be challenged in court.

“There is a great risk to memory protection when […] the machine [IA] adopts dissonant behaviors [dos] of that person in life. I think it would result in a violation of the memory of the person who passed away, because they no longer have any control over what will be done with this legacy”, says the lawyer.

Leal explains that the Civil Code protects family members from contesting how the honor or image of someone who died is being treated. For other people who are not related, the topic is still discussed in the legal field, with some experts in favor and others not. The teacher is part of the first group.

“When we restrict this protection only to family members it is very risky, because, in some situations, these interests in the deceased person’s memory would be left without protection”, he says.

Inequality also matters

It is not only in law that the idea of ​​prolonging human life is controversial. The subject also raises questions for Luciana Zaterka, professor of modern philosophy at UFABC (Federal University of ABC). She says that she began to become interested in the subject when she was studying the philosopher Francis Bacon.

For him, organisms were composed of a matter called spirits – the term, in Bacon’s thinking, has no relationship with anything of a supernatural nature. By putting these substances from a young person into an older individual, it would be possible to achieve rejuvenation.

This idea, continues Zaterka, was reflected years later among scientists who were dedicated to studying blood transfusion.

And it continues to flourish to this day in a field of contemporary philosophy called transhumanism, which is an attempt to “attain an ideal of humanity.”

“They are wanting to build what they call post-human. First, there would be the transhuman, which would be a middle ground, to reach the post-human, a stage in which we will minimize our vicissitudes and our problems as much as possible. “, says Zaterka.

Some are thinking about using biological techniques that supposedly could prolong human life, such as cryogenics. Others attempt to achieve this purpose by using digital tools to capture a person’s consciousness.

Regardless of the medium, the teacher criticizes. “Who will have access to this cutting-edge science?”, she asks, in reference to treatments that could become a reality in the near future and that contribute to increasing longevity and improving quality of life.

Zaterka also criticizes the objective of overcoming failures which, in her view, are part of the human experience. “We are human, and vicissitudes are part of us.”