X-Message-Number: 13339
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 10:56:27 -0500 (EST)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Research

I was amused by Paul Michael's statement:

> CI, to the best of my knowledge after a
> fairly close involvement with them over the last eight years or so, is
> not now and never has been, promoting itself as a research organisation.

If I had written this, Mr. Ettinger might be quite upset about it. Paul
makes the technical distinction that it is the Immortalist Society, not
CI, that has involved itself in research; but in Mr. Ettinger's many posts
emphasizing his commitment to research, he has tended to blur this
distinction by using the word "we" when describing his commitment to (for
example) the sheep-head studies or the Olga Visser rat-heart experiment.
Incidentally, was it ever made clear whether the $25,000 for Ms. Visser
came from CI, the Immortalist Society, or Mr. Ettinger personally?

Paul continues:

> CI is wise to concentrate its efforts where they belong, looking after
> those entrusted to our care.

The implication here seems to be that CryoCare (of which I remain
president at this time) has diverted valuable resources to research,
instead of maintenance of its patients. In fact, so far as I am aware, the
total contribution from CryoCare to research, during the past five years,
has been $1,000. CryoCare is an administrative organization, not a
research organization; and our patients are very well cared for, now as
always.

> Most importantly of all, underlined by some unfortunate recent events,
> IT IS STILL IN BUSINESS.

While CryoCare, of course, is waiting for a new service provider. Mr.
Michael's point seems to be that it's better to stay in business,
providing a bare-bones service, than to suspend operations after providing
a more comprehensive service including remote standby and the
sophisticated medical and perfusion capabilities which I mentioned in my
previous message. To some, these capabilities might seem to be an
important part of patient care. However, Mr. Michael may indeed turn out
to be right; we'll have to wait and see what the revived CryoCare
patients, and CI patients, have to say about this.

--Charles Platt

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