X-Message-Number: 4 From: Kevin Q. Brown Subject: American Cryonics Society Date: 28 Jul 1988 This is the second of three postings describing the three organizations that provide cryonic suspension services. All three postings are transcribed (with permission) from interviews published in the Winter, 1988 issue of Venturist Voice. (Write to The Venturists, 1355 E. Peoria Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85020. Venturist Voice is currently free, but donations are gladly accepted.) This posting is on the American Cryonics Society. The previous posting was on the Cryonics Insititute and the next one will be about Alcor Life Extension Foundation. - Kevin Q. Brown ...{att|clyde|cuae2}!ho4cad!kqb ----- American Cryonics Society 870 Market Street, Suite 368 San Francisco, CA 94102 415-397-3386 800-524-4456 Information supplied by H. Jackson Zinn, President, March 12, 1988 (special thanks to Mr. Zinn who was kind enough to retape the interview after the original was lost). The American Cryonics Society (ACS) was founded in 1969 as the Bay Area Cryonics Society. The name was changed to American Cryonics Society in September, 1985. Our cryonic suspension and maintenance of patient services are subcontracted with Trans Time, Inc., a for-profit corporation based in Oakland, California. (ACS itself is nonprofit.) We have agreements with the Immortalist Society, the Cryonics Society of Canada, and the Pacific Cryobionic Society, with regard to exchange of leads. At a recent meeting with the Michigan group we agreed to exchange lists of professionals and others who would assist in effecting a cryonic suspension of one of our members. We also work with the Cryonics Coordinators of America, a group in Lake Success, New York which provides information about cryonics and assist the inquirer about obtaining life insurance and handling other arrangements for their cryonic suspension. We have 103 full members and approximately 90 associates. A full member is one who has paid the enrollment fee of $1000, and after the first year, pays annual dues which are at present $180. There is also a provision for amortization of the enrollment fee on an installment basis. A full member is eligible to vote for the Board of Governors and to serve on the Board, and is also eligible to become an officer in the organization. A full member is not required to be signed up for cryonic suspension, though most such members are. The status of "suspension member" is awarded by Trans Time, for those that they have emergency responsibility for. Full membership in ACS, however, is a prerequisite for suspension membership with Trans Time. Associate members are persons who pay $25 per year (or $30 for foreign residents) for the right to be informed via our regular publications such as the ACS Journal, minutes of our meetings, and miscellaneous mailings that we have. Our storage facility for cryonics patients is a one-story, high-ceilinged, concrete warehouse in Oakland. We also have a business office in San Francisco, and another business office just recently opened in Palo Alto. We have whole-body and head-only options for frozen human storage. (It's also possible to store tissue samples for cloning purposes -- but this is a matter that remains to be negotiated with Trans Time.) Recommended minimum funding levels are $50,000 for the neuro and $125,000 for the whole body options. Also, at present our scientists do not want to do the neuropreservation operation. Thus we would treat each case, initially, as a whole body and do the conversion to neuro later and only if the funding proved inadequate for whole body storage. Trans Time publishes a schedule of fees for various stages of the procedure. Costs will vary quite a bit, depending on where the patient dies. The costs anticipate a person dying outside California but within the 48 coterminus states. Approximately 40% of the whole-body funding ($50,000) goes into the steps necessary to get the body into the capsule, in a typical suspension. For a neuropreservation the figure is approximately 70% ($35,000). We don't handle arrangements for frozen storage of pets ourselves, but Trans Time does. At present they have a dog and two cats, and I understand that they are negotiating for receiving another dog from another cryonics organization. As for stabilization, transport and perfusion protocols, we have an understanding with a local hospital that they will allow us to use their emergency room facilities and all equipment for a suspension to be carried out in the Bay area. A suspension will depend in large part on where the patient dies. We will attempt to enlist the cooperation of a local hospital, and in some cases we can get the patient down to dry ice temperature before he ever leaves the hospital. There are no specific, formal requirements to be a suspension team member, though we have persons with a wide variety of backgrounds and qualifications. One of our team members has a Ph.D. in physiology, and has frozen and thawed over 500 animals, mostly hamsters but also dogs and monkeys. Another of our members has a Ph.D. in biochemistry, and another has a Ph.D. in biophysics and was involved in human suspensions in the late '70's. In addition we have a person who is a doctor of veterinary medicine, and also has a Ph.D. in physiology and pharmacology, and several additional supporting players. We will accept suspension members in remote locations, and we'll try to provide for them as best we can. Suspension personnel do have passports, so they're available for any travel overseas. In addition we have an American Express Card for anyone in the Society so that theoreticaly we can get unlimited short-term credit, for the necessary expenses that might be incurred. A person who wants to be taken care of from a remote location should provide substantial additional funding to take care of these additional expenses -- this includes transportation of both the suspension personnel and the body. We do encourage persons who might be needing suspension services soon to move to our area, if possible. Elections are held annually for the Board of Governors (in January). ("Governor" in this context means "director of a nonprofit corporation" under California state law, so it's the same thing as being a director.) The Board itself has seven members. Each full member of the Society gets a ballot (except that parents cast ballots for minors). Up to seven votes may be cast by each member, but no cumulative voting is allowed (at most one vote can be cast for each candidate). Once the Board is chosen, the Board then chooses the officers, which include a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and a new honorary office called Chairman. Governors must be at least 18 years of age under state law, and in addition we require a Governor to be a full member of the Society. As to financial arrangements for suspensions, we give the individual the free choice of trustee. About half of the individuals have chosen the Society to be the trustee, the other half have chosen friends, relatives, trust companies, law firms, etc. In cases where the Society is the trustee, we have a five-person Suspension Fund Advisory Committee, which advises the Board as to trust investments. The Board in turn has a collective role as trustee. Our policy is to keep funds for each individual separate as well -- everybody has their own account. As to research and other activities, we have sponsored a number of experiments over the years with hamsters, dogs and monkeys. An EMCO cart (extracorporeal membrane oxygenator, an advanced heart-lung machine used in suspensions) is now under construction by one of our staff, Dr. Harold Waitz. In addition we sell books and educational materials to the public. We sponsor activities such as our weekly cryonics dinners where people can informally learn about cryonics. We also have an annual life extension picnic, and we're planning a 20th anniversary party and dinner at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco on January 12, 1989. We also do interviews with the media, and we have a wide variety of spokesmen for that purpose. We have a newsletter which is presently called the American Cryonics Society Journal, however we are considering merging our publication with that of The Immortalist Society in Michigan. We supply an information package which typically includes the newsletter, various flyers about cryonics publications, and news clippings about the Society. During the last year we've had appearances on the Donahue Show, the Sally Jessie Rafael Show, and Cable News Network, and we have one coming up on National Public Radio. At the end of these programs usually the toll-free number is flashed. Persons inquiring will get the number of the Cryonics Coordinators of America. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4