X-Message-Number: 1333
Date: 18 Nov 92 07:11:06 EST
From: Paul Wakfer <>
Subject: CRYONICS Paul Wakfer Cancels Suspension Contract

    This is to inform you that I have terminated my suspension
contract with Alcor.  It is my unhappy belief that the finances,
ethics, personnel and transport/suspension competence of Alcor has so
deteriorated since the time that I signed my contract, that there is
no longer any reasonable chance that I will reach the future by
contracting with Alcor.  Unfortunately, I also believe the other
cryonics organizations give me even less chance.

    The following are some of the specific reasons for this action:

1)  The primary reason is that, since the termination of Alcor's
    contract with Mike Darwin, it is not possible for Alcor to provide
    the quality of suspension for which I contracted.

    Secondary reasons are:

2)  The continuing tenure, as President, of a man who has, I believe
    shown gross incompetence in that position and, in addition, gross
    lack of personal integrity.

3)  The continuing presence, on the Board, of Keith Henson, Dave
    Pizer, Carlos Mondragon, and Hugh Hixon each of whom (for very
    different reasons) I consider unfit for service on that body.  In
    addition, I believe there are very good reasons why the Board of
    Directors should not include *any* employees.  The Board must also
    commit to changing the method by which it is elected to allow for
    regional and member participation.  Both the present method and a
    fully democratic method of choosing board members are
    unacceptable.

4)  The continuing absence of technically competent transport and
    suspension personnel including anyone suitable to organize and
    conduct transports and suspensions.  Mike Darwin is currently the
    only person in the world competent for that job.  He must be given
    full responsibility, authority and cooperation to do that job and
    to build a professional team for that purpose, including
    replacements for himself.  Any Alcor Directors or employees who
    are not fully honest and cooperative must get out of the way. 
    There are sufficient qualified Alcor members who *are* happy to
    work with Mike to replace those who have wanted him gone.

5)  The Board's official sanction of the use of Endowment Fund
    principal for operational needs and the rejection of the advice
    and concern of the Endowment and Patient Care Trust Fund advisory
    committees which led to their mass resignation.  Alcor must
    institute an inviolable policy to never again use anything except
    the real dollar earnings of the Endowment and Patient Care funds.

6)  The overcharging of the Patient Care Trust Fund for operating
    expenses and the consequent virtual theft of funds from helpless
    patients to get more money for Alcor's wasteful operational
    purposes and the continuing negligence in making that fund a fully
    independent trust.

7)  The absence of staff and volunteers who are passionate zealots,
    who eat, sleep and breath cryonics, eagerly working day and night
    seven days a week, and ready to move heaven and earth to thrust
    cryonics and immortalism into modern society, and to win the
    battle with deathism.

8)  The conciliatory, try to please everyone, bandaid approach taken
    by the new Directors, when wholesale changes are needed *now*.

9)  The irresponsible hiring of new staff when the present ones are
    not working nearly effectively enough and there is no money to
    pay for the new staff.

10) The irresponsible abandonment of computers adequate for their
    needs and which were largely supplied to them gratis.  And the
    subsequent purchase and installation, at a cost of considerable
    time and money, of computers which are more powerful and deluxe
    than is reasonable in comparison with the money that Alcor has to
    spend and what its spending priorities should be.

11) The continued recruiting of clients at the expense of perfecting
    the product which they are being asked to purchase.  Concomitant
    with this salesmanship is the distortion of the real, current
    possibility of actually ever coming back if one is suspended now.

12) The secrecy in Alcor Board meetings concerning things other than
    client confidentiality in a continuing attempt by certain
    directors to hide their real selves, and to keep the facts
    concerning the strife and turmoil encompassing Alcor, from
    suspension clients.

13) The continuing lack of openness, objectivity and candor in the
    pages of Cryonics.  If Alcor wishes to keep Cryonics 'clean' for
    recruiting purposes, then start a newsletter for members only in
    which Alcor's problems can be fully and openly discussed.

    Under the terms of my suspension contract, I have requested an
immediate refund of my $35,000.00 prepaid suspension funds plus
accumulated interest as was guaranteed by Alcor's President when I
signed up.  I will be investing my money into the cryonics research of
Cryovita and Biopreservation in the hope that by the time I need
suspension we will have vastly improved the viability of the
procedure.

    I will continue to take good care of my health and be as defensive
as possible with respect to accidents, hoping that there will soon
exist a cryonics organization which has sufficient virtue to induce me
to once again enter into a suspension contract.  It is my most fervent
wish that Alcor itself will soon make the necessary changes which will
once again allow me to place my trust in them.

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