X-Message-Number: 1523
Date: 29 Dec 92 22:55:23 EST
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CRYONICS: TKD about Saul Kent

Hi again.

Although I don't pretend to give any answers to Scott Herman's questions,
the fact that my name was mentioned did make me decide to clarify my own
views.

In the first place, Saul has been involved in cryonics for as long as
it has existed. He's older than me in that respect (though compared to 
both Scott and Brian we would both count as old members). His newsletter
on life extension, and his involvement in selling vitamins and other
drugs, have been entirely moral and correct. Opposition to the FDA in
any form deserves support of all of us as individuals. Saul is also 
noteworthy for publishing one of the first cryonics newsletters, 
predating even Pat Dewey's.

However my agreement with him about the worth of effort in cryonics,
and the importance of his fight against the FDA, does not mean that I
have in the past or do now agree with him on everything. In particular
I think that his desire to split off the storage function from Alcor
into another organization is quite wrong, not morally wrong but as a
matter of whether or not it would cure (or even help) the problems of
longterm support which any cryonics patient faces.

I don't even totally disagree with him about splitting up Alcor: I
think that serious thought should be given about splitting off the 
SUSPENSION activity of Alcor (that is, the performance of the operation
itself). That activity is just the kind that would benefit from business
competition. Alcor would then become a client of one or several 
suspension organizations. But the Board and membership of Alcor would
remain the same, and patients once suspended would be transferred to
}iAlcor.

Everyone involved with Alcor will by now have noticed a LOT of dissension
about who should be members of the Board or officers of Alcor. I think
that a Constitutional Convention would certainly be in order, if only
because that dissension EXISTS. But that is quite different from setting
up another organization purely for storage; and if we can find a good 
constitution for this OTHER organization, then we should be able to find
one for Alcor itself.

I hope that these points make my own position clear.
				Best and long life,
					Thomas Donaldson

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