X-Message-Number: 4533
Date: 22 Jun 95 03:50:22 EDT
From: Mike Darwin <>
Subject: ACS Contract

I want to echo Jim Yount's comments, and add a few my own.

But before going further I want to apologize for not responding sooner: I did
not get the Cryonet message Jim's post appeared in (thanks to Paul Wakfer for
sending me a copy).  I probably didn't get it because I had over 200 pieces of
e-mail waiting for me, and my dowload program drops a few when it has to handle
that many.

Why I had that much mail backed up is also relevant: I am on a walker (like old
people use) and am much restricted due to a foot fracture (for the medically
literate among you: it was Jone fracture of the 5th metatarsal).  This is

normally a simple garden variety fracture which is easily managed.  Not so in my
case both due to pre-existing health problems and my unmitigated stupidity in
walking around on it for 10 days -- knowing it was broken.

But, back to the subject at hand.  I enjoyed working with ACS very much, oddly
enough, more so than with any other cryonics organization I've dealt with.  I

say oddly, because I have been involved in forming and/or recruiting many of the
people in the others cryonics organizations I've worked with.

When I first started working with ACS it was in small, tenative steps, largely
because I had heard bad things about some of the people, principally Jim Yount.
In my experience I found Jim honest, forthright, and genuinely concerned about

the patients we cared for together.  The countless hours he spent in preparation
for Jerry White's and Dick Marsh's cryopreservations will remain positively
etched into my mind forever.

ACS always paid me well for my work, expressed gratitude and showed a genuine
eagerness to learn and grow.  And, despite many ugly rumors (and a few facts
too!) they also displayed what I felt was extraordinary trust in me and my
judgment.  I deeply appreciated that.  My relationship with them was

professional and very satisfying in every case.  I also came to realize that Jim
Yount was deeply concerned about patients as people; a perception that was
clouded by other involvemenmts in the past on both our parts.

Finally, I want to compliment Jim and the ACS Board on the courage they
exhibited in going to court to fight for the rights of their patients despite
great odds and the threat of personal financial ruin.  Few people in cryonics
will do that.  I believe that Jim, Jerry White, Edgar Swank, Margaret Bradshaw
and Dick Marsh took a courageous stance in the choices they made.  I mention

these people specifically not to exclude others on the ACS Board who are just as
deserving of credit, but because in these cases I had first hand knowledge of
the people involved and the risks they took.

Throughout all the years of bickering and competetion between ACS, ALCOR, me,
etc. two people who I always had the utomost respect for and continuing cordial
relations with were Jerry White and Dick Marsh.  During Jerry's final illness I
came to know another ACS Director, Margret Bradshaw, very well, and to consider
her a *friend* as well as a colleague.  

While I deeply regret the need to have done so, I can say that caring for these
people and shephreding them into cryopreservation was among the most rewarding
and deeply satisfying things I have ever done in my life.  I have always said

that my career will suceed or fail on the basis of the outcome for these and the
other patients I've cared for.

I talked with Jim Yount just a few minutes ago about an unrelated matter.  We
remain on good terms and, I think, (at least from my end)  friends.

It was a difficult and painful decision to opt out of the ACS contract.  I hope
that with the passage of a little more time, perhaps things will change so that
I can again offer my services to ACS members.

In the meantime, ignore the rumor mongers.  BPI and ACS had a good working

relationship and we parted on the best of terms.  Parting on any terms (at least
among  *live* cryonicists) other than with guns blazing and nerve agent in the
air, is extraordinarily uncommon.  In that alone ACS and BPI achieved a miracle
of sorts.

Mike Darwin


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4533