X-Message-Number: 2804
Date:  Sun, 05 Jun 94 22:15:13 
From: Steve Bridge <STEVE%>
Subject:  CRYONICS Suspension Team

(Via unlicensed copy of UGATE)
To CryoNet
>From Steve Bridge, Alcor
June 5, 1994

In reply to:  Message: #2797 - Alcor suspension team
              Date: 03 Jun 94 11:26:32 EDT
              From: Charles Platt <>

>I want to make one small point about the recent report from 
>Steve Bridge describing the suspension of an Alcor member in 
>New York City.  

>Steve describes Stanley Gerber as a "Transport Team member" 
>and seems to imply that Gerry Arthus and Curtis Henderson 
>were also members of the team. 

>In fact, Stanley Gerber and Curtis Henderson are members of 
>CryoCare, not Alcor, and they volunteered their help on an 
>informal basis. Therefore, it is a little misleading to 
>describe them as members of Alcor's transport team. As for 
>Gerry Arthus, he is now in the process of signing with 
>CryoCare. 

>I must emphasize, however, that regardless of our 
>affiliation, New York CryoCare members (including myself) 
>remain very willing to do whatever we can to help Alcor in 
>any future emergency. 

>--Charles Platt, vice president, CryoCare Foundation 


     Well, I have a few small points to make back to Charles.  (While this 
message will make me sound a bit irritated -- and I am, I respect and like 
Charles, and I do not assume that there is any hidden intent by Charles, 
other than friendly competition.)  

     I did not mean to imply that ANY particular person except the patient 
and her son were Alcor *Members*.  However, in the changing face of 
cryonics, there are several trained individuals who are willing to work on 
suspensions for members of more than one organization.  If an individual 
is trained by Alcor, working with Alcor equipment, working on an Alcor 
patient, and being given some level of decision-making responsibility 
during the stand-by or transport, that person should be called a member of 
Alcor's Transport Team.  All three of those individuals were in such a 
position.

     If Charles wishes to play these kinds of games, however; I will be 
perfectly willing to point out at the first CryoCare suspension that at 
least two individuals who are key members of Biopreservation's suspension 
team (which will do the transport and suspensions for CryoCare) are in 
fact *Alcor members.*

     I hate to stake public claims on who is a member and who is not, when 
those individuals should in fact handle such statements themselves.  
However, since Charles brought up the subject:

1. Stanley Gerber.  Yes, we knew Stanley was in the process of switching; 
but he had agreed to be helpful and to work as an Alcor Transport Team 
Member, plus help members of other groups as well.

2.  Curtis Henderson.  We did not know at the time of the suspension that 
Curtis had decided to switch, although we knew he was considering it.  In 
fact, when I spoke with Curtis while I was in New York two weeks later, he 
wasn't really sure if he had switched or not, and he wasn't really sure 
that --if he had-- he *should* have.

3.  Gerry Arthus specifically told me that he had in fact filled out 
CryoCare paperwork, but had decided NOT to switch.  Gerry may or may not 
change his mind again about that in the future.

     I apologize to Stan, Gerry, and Curtis for having discussed this as 
much as I have, and I will try to refrain from such unseemly competitive 
writing on this subject again.  However, I maintain that individuals can 
be regarded as members of *more than one* suspension team and that, in 
these still early days of cryonics, where local organizations can be 
thousands of miles away from their cryonic suspension providers, such a 
situation is both inevitable and practical.  In fact, Alcor has *agreed* 
that we must accept and encourage the current changes in local groups 
which appear to place more reliance on the local organization for 
transport support, no matter what organization the patient is a member of.  
The members of one organization are not so much willing to help another 
organization in an emergency as they are willing to help EACH OTHER as 
*individuals* in an emergency.  Personally, I think that attitude is right 
and proper and over time will help the growth of cryonics and the quality 
of distant suspensions.

     While initial relations between Alcor and Cryocare (and CryoCare's 
affiliates, Biopreservation and Cryospan) have been competitive and 
strained, I hope we can at some point in the future find more ways to 
cooperate on suspensions, share information, and make joint progress 
against the real enemy -- those in the world who believe cryonics should 
not be allowed to work or to be done at all.

Steve Bridge

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