X-Message-Number: 17533
From: 
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 19:00:56 EDT
Subject: Platt, Visser, CryoCare

Platt  (#17521) writes in part to the effect that (a) my animosity toward him 
stems from my embarrassment over the Visser affair about 5 years ago, on 
which he has dwelt repeatedly in an effort to impugn my judgment in general, 
even when the topic under discussion had no relation; and (b) that his 
association with the rise and demise of CryoCare, on the other hand, was 
meritorious. Let's look at essentials of the record.

First, CI's decision to enter into a contract with the Vissers was--at 
most--no more important than Alcor's. Actually, Alcor could be said to bear 
more of the responsibility, since the demonstration was on Alcor premises and 
almost all of the observers were Alcor people. I still don't think the 
decision was a bad one, based on what we thought we knew at the time--a large 
potential upside, no unbearable downside. In any case, Platt does his best to 
smear just me, not Steve Bridge or Hugh Hixon or Fred and Linda Chamberlain. 
(And Fred and Linda, and others in leadership postions at Alcor, continued to 
try to make additional deals with the Vissers in the months following, right 
up until the second, failed demonstration. I have the emails to prove it.) 
There's journalistic integrity for you--and that's part of the reason I 
believe Platt just plain invented the rosewater "anonymous" messages. 

Compared to my Visser culpability, Platt implies, his association with 
CryoCare was wise and fruitful. In fact, the CryoCare fiasco cost Alcor and 
cryonics much, much more than the Visser episode. 

CryoCare (although itself nonprofit) pulled a lot of people out of Alcor and 
made a decision to use primarily for-profit service providers, starting (and 
ending) with BioPreservation and CryoSpan for initial care and storage 
respectively. It should have been obvious that the market couldn't support 
them, any more than it had TransTime. There were also other problems with 
both companies, obvious going in, including Mike Darwin's self-admitted 
health problems and lack of reliable availability. Now BioPreservation and 
CryoSpan are both effectively defunct, along with CryoCare. Some of the 
CryoCare people have gone back to Alcor, and a few have gone to CI, while 
others have just dropped outof cryonics. Talk about self-inflicted wounds! 

Certainly Cryonet bickering is a tempest in a teapot, and scarcely matters in 
the big picture, and some will say that, if Lemler won't muzzle Platt, I 
should just ignore him. I certainly have better things to do than detail his 
malefactions. But turning the other cheek isn't my style, and I don't have a 
blood pressure problem. 

On another subject, it occurs to me that some readers may be moved to donate 
money toward the victims of the recent terrorism rather than the James Swayze 
fund. With all due respect, I suggest that we keep things in perspective.

Robert Ettinger 

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