X-Message-Number: 22390
From: 
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 10:23:51 EDT
Subject: Ted Williams paperwork?

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Hello, Dear Cryoneters:

Like most of you, I have been following the "Ted Williams 2/Larry Johnson" 
story with fascination.

I appreciated both the reasoned tone and the clear content of two of our 
ALCOR/Cryonics leaders in today's Cryonet, David Pizer and Charles Platt, 

responding to reasonable questions in the Larry Johnson matter.  What 
credibility, 

integrity, intelligence, and restraint these writings display!  I am willing to
trust my life with leaders like these.  Great writing and accountability are 

displayed by Charles, who must feel *really blindsided by someone who he picked,
worked with, and felt he could trust.  Anyone in business or engaged in the 
business of life for very long has perhaps had something similar happen.  A 

business partner, friend, lover, or associate leaving a relationship, displaying
an entirely different personality, and then aggressively attacking is shocking 
and uncomfortable.  My heart goes out to my dear friends, comrades, and 
clients at ALCOR.

By the way, it may be relevant to say in support of ALCOR that in my personal 
dealings with LJ he was businesslike, soft spoken, an enthusiastic supporter 
of cryonics, and seemed quite professional.  And happy to be a part of ALCOR.  
 Human beings are unpredictable at times, and perhaps even inexplicable at 
times like this.  

But, to the title of my post.  I fielded a call from a cryonics friend and 
client yesterday who was quite concerned about the "negative publicity" of the 
SI article and the Larry Johnson accusations.  (Just for the record, my 

personal opinion is that most of this extra publicity will turn out to be good 
on the 
whole for cryonics if handled correctly.) He expressed the following question 
to me.  "Why didn't ALCOR require the same level of paperwork and 

documentation that we all signed, with acknowledgment of our wishes in 
triplicate, signed 
and witnessed by at least two nonrelatives, and notarized?"

My response was, "Well, I believe that ALCOR probably DOES have such 

paperwork and documentation, but due to confidentially and professionalism, or 
perhaps 
legal/ethical reasons, they are simply not showing it at this time.  ALCOR 
won't even say publicly that they *have Ted, despite the fact that virtually 
everyone involved knows this to be the case."

Then I began to wonder, (and perhaps this is not the right public forum to do 
this in)... Since push has come to shove in this situation, would it be wrong 
to show some of this documentation?

Since I am unabashedly a "cryonics ideologue and supporter" I don't wish to 
provide more controversy in this area than our many detractors already claim.  
And it may be better to ask this privately of ALCOR execs and board members.  
But, since we are trying to be an open forum, perhaps this question *is 
relevant in this venue.

Did Ted Williams sign the same documentation of his wishes that current ALCOR 
folks sign?  And would it be prudent to simply document that Ted's last 

wishes are *indeed being carried out?  This is not simply following a stained 
and 

unclear sentence on a scrap of paper, or a forged document, but we have written
PROOF that Ted did *indeed want this? 


Rudi Hoffman 
800-749-3773

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