X-Message-Number: 17789 From: Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 14:59:39 EDT Subject: re:Subject: guesswork in cryonics Message #17782 --part1_5a.4582de.28ff2f1b_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Charles Platt wrote: >David, so long as you are not doing your lab work with whole human beings, >and so long as none of your patients can be resuscitated, I think you must >agree that you will be involved in "guesswork" like everyone else. You >will certainly be extrapolating from your animal results. Charles, what's your intent behind this message? I'm confused- it sounds like CI is working to really find out some of the basic answers to a lot of the problems of cryonics. It seems to me that you are implying, or suggesting, that CI and their ongoing research program will be less than valuable- or no more valuable than anything other organizations are doing. I apologize if I'm wrong. But what's your belief that motivated your message? Although no patients can currently be resuscitated, all cryonics organizations are doing lab work on whole human beings, every time we suspend someone- as to results, time will tell- but some of the direct observation during suspension is valuable. I'd also like to point out that NIH clinical trials all start with lab models based on chemistry, then advance to animal trials, then human trials. This approach has been extremely successful. Perhaps CI is just in the chemical study/animal trials area of their research. And the diversity in labs - are there currently three? CI, Alcor, and Dr. Lemler's new lab setup, I'm sorry the name escapes me, are the ones I'm familiar with, should hearten everyone that groundbreaking research will follow in the next few years. As a general aside, medical science, in case anyone hasn't quite noticed recently, is currently what I would term a field of miracles. We've just cracked the genetic codes, we've started human trials on HIV vaccines, we can now custom tailor drugs and medicines, our understanding of human physiology is growing by leaps and bounds- Cangene just applied for FDA approval of a hepatitis B hyperimmune product- blood plasma and antibodies specific to hepatitis B that don't rely on the patient's immune response. I was fascinated to read about this on CNN, a new technology that didn't even exist 2 years ago. I think we should all encourage everyone involved with Cryonics to support ALL medical research, and the fact we have multiple labs doing research specific to cryonics should be something that makes our hearts leap with joy, not make us critical. I hope that diversity in research, and having multiple cryonics organizations in existence, will help forward cryonics quickly. Best to you, Michael Donahue --part1_5a.4582de.28ff2f1b_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17789