X-Message-Number: 1384
Date: 02 Dec 92 04:31:24 EST
From: Paul Wakfer <>
Subject: CRYONICS: Reply to a point of #1383 (Hal Finney)

In the middle of all the junk, it was refreshing to see someone as
concerned about freezing damage as I am.  I leave others more
knowledgeable to address his concerns on those issues.  I only wish to
make one positive and encouraging point about our present best transport
capability.

>                                               In an ideal
>suspension, the cryonics team is able to begin work immediately once
>the patient's heart has stopped (and death pronounced by a cooperative
>physician).  In this situation the patient is subjected to no more
>than a few minutes of warm ischemia.  In my mind there is little doubt
>that if the patient could be miraculously preserved in exactly this
>state, that future medicine could revive them.

>But, we can't do that.  Instead, we have to freeze them in liquid
>nitrogen.

We can even revive them now Hal!  If they are slow dying terminal cases
who have given instruction for no extra-ordinary measures to be used to
keep them alive, and if we get them onto the MALSS quickly enough, they
probably are currently arriving at Alcor in revivable condition. 
(Right now, research is being conducted within the cyonics community,
which will make revivability possible even after longer periods of warm
ischemia and longer trips to the place of suspension).  The problem is
that such revival would be pointless since no-one in current medicine
can repair the body failures which caused the terminal prognosis.  Thus
we must suspend them to wait for a time when they can not only be
revived but also cured of their ailments.  For old patients this means
the multifaceted problems of, and reasons for, aging must also have
been solved.  For many who are being suspended (certainly aids
patients), it may well be that within a few years, then-current
medicine will be able to completely cure them.  Unfortunately, in the
process of freezing them (the least damaging way to preserve them of
which we currently know), so much damage is done that it will be far
longer (if ever) than the time when a cure is found for the ailment
which necessitated their suspension, before they can be revived and
cured. 

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