X-Message-Number: 31489
From: "John de Rivaz" <>
Subject: publicity, organ transplants
Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:52:47 -0000

Publicity etc.

I may be getting confused here, but Dr Stodolsky did mention a large sum of 
money on the Venturists' list - maybe even more than the entire 
capitalisation of the existing cryonics organisations.

"Development of a new model" suggests to me another way of saying "thinking 
up a new way to present cryonics". This sort of brain storming has been 
going on for decades within the movement, at meetings, in newsletters and 
laterly on the internet. I find it very hard to beleive that this can be 
bettered by giving large sums of money to professionals, however well 
qualified, to spend a few weeks or months on the job.

The "amateurs" in the cryonics movement have **not** been motivated by a 
passion for fee income, but have been motivated by a passion for their 
subject and indeed a passion to survive. Many of them are highly intelligent 
and have, or had, professional carreers. The movement has already been in 
existance for about half a century, providing a wealth of experience. I 
would suspect that any proposals made by professionals new to the idea would 
have been tried before, or would have previously been declared impractical.

Organ transplant industry

I agree that this is an enormous industry. It has emerged over the last half 
century more or less in parallel with cryonics. Many of the current 
practises were considered suitable subjects for horror films 50 years ago or 
more, and many ethicists argued against them in the early days, particularly 
taking organs from live people.

However trends could work against cryonics. If the pressure on individuals 
to donate, both at death and in life, increases this would not be good. I 
know we think this is murderous, as indeed it is, but the majority of people 
would see it otherwise. Fatal self sacrifice is a big part of civilisation, 
both in government inspired wars and small terrorist movements. Persuading 
others to scarifice themsleves is also big business, as can be seen at 
facilities ranging from government military acadamies down to terrorist 
training camps.

One of the big arguments against cryonics is that the chances of the 
patient's body being a useful source of spare parts, and his assets being a 
useful source of funds, for others are more or less certain, whereas there 
is a question mark over cryonics being a useful treatment for the patient. I 
know that this could be extended to cover any surgical procedure - none are 
or could be guaranteed. But governments and health authorities have gone to 
enormous trouble to provide probability figures for common operations. It is 
impossible to provide a comparable figure for cryonics as it relies on 
future technology. With authority figures, such as coroners and hospital 
legal departments willing to kill (even if only in cryonics terms) specific 
individuals for a greater common good, this is a big negative for cryonics.

However there is a ray of hope. That is that if it is possible to grow new 
organs for the individual needing them, then the transplant industry becomes 
totally different. No longer is there a need for one person to die so that 
another can live. But such technology could be decades away.

-- 
Sincerely, John de Rivaz:  http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including
Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley
Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy,  Nomad .. and
more

----- Original Message ----- 
From: CryoNet
Message #31476
From: David Stodolsky 

<del>My proposal is not to spend lots of money on publicity, but to fund
development of a new model for social organization and promotion, that
once tested could be applied widely with very limited resources. The
testing of this new model requires some funding for publicity, but
word-of-mouth/viral advertising would be the main means of
dissemination after development. In fact, I explicitly stated that
money currently spent on publicity is wasted.
<del>

* * *

From: 

<del>
Organ transplant is a big business, a big service industry supported by
a constantly advancing medical science.  Sooner or later they will want
to have viable frozen organs at their disposal. That is the ship which
will probably bring us home within the next few years.
<del> 


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