X-Message-Number: 18163
Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2001 16:01:56 -0500
From: david pizer <>
Subject: New option?

To: Cryonet
Copy to: Alcor management group


Hi CryoFriends:

Lately, there has been some discussion on Cryonet about what happens if you
just have your head cryopreserved.  It seems that Alcor now feels they can
do a better job preserving brain tissue if they just cryopreserve the head.
 Some people, when talking about the newer procedures use words associated
with "vitrify."  I don't think Alcor is doing reversible vitrification, but
I do believe the new proceedure better preserves more brain tissue than the
old one.

Assuming the above is true, why couldn't Alcor do a combination proceedure
where they use the new vitrification-related proceedure for the patient's
head, and the old proceedure on the rest  of the body?  

This seems like it would be the best of both present worlds, (at least the
best of what we presently have available for our use); Having the brain get
the best possible preservation, but having the body also be preserved to
some extend.  It just may be that since the body is mostly non-neural
tissue, the lesser preservation method is good enough to preserve that
tissue and scientists in the future could repair the body any way the could
and repair the original cells in the brain in a nearly perfect way.

Even if the body was cloned and a new cloned body was attached to the
original brain, it seems it might be useful to have the old body there for
the future scientists to have it to gather more information from.  Perhaps
they can clone a more accurate new body with the old body present, then
just from raw DNA?

From my past work with Alcor, I would make an educated guess that at least
half the Alcor members would like this option, if it were explained
correctly, and if it did not cost too much more than old fashioned whole
body suspension.  My wife and I would opt for this option.

David Pizer

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