X-Message-Number: 2578
Date: 29 Jan 94 16:01:13 EST
From: Mike Darwin <>
Subject: CRYONICS Re: Cryonics and Quackery

I can answer some of Thomas' questions about William Jarvis.  I have
talked with him extensively and he has received (and actually read) the
first version of the Alcor handbook CRFT.  I know this because I sent it
along with a LOT of other material and spoke with him after he received
it.  Jarvis is personable enough but is typical of most in the medical
and scientific community as regards human cryopreservation: unproven
claims depending upon as yet unrealized (and possibly unrealizable)
science are quackery.   


I find Thomas' opinion that cryonics is considered quackery as a
"minority opinion" in the medical/scientific community BIZZARE in the
extreme.  Perhaps this is a result of his sheltered background!  I have
been in the trenches and in INTIMATE contact with a LARGE cross-section
of medical and scientific personnel and let me assure you that the
attitude that cryonics is quackery is the DOMINANT one.  This is
particularly true of people in a position of authority.

The "opposition" will crystalize when cryonics becomes noticeable from an
economic/sociological standpoint.  This WILL happen.  It will also happen
when cryonics and medicine begin to be forced into a closer interface.  As
Steve Harris so succintly puts it: medicine has not yet "noticed"
cryonics.  Sooner or later it will.

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