X-Message-Number: 4556
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 95 20:18:40
From: Steve Bridge <>
Subject: Choosing a suspension organization
To CryoNet
>From Steve Bridge, Alcor
June 26, 1995
In reply (more or less) to: Message #4546
Date: 24 Jun 95 20:14:10 EDT
From: Mike Darwin <>
Subject: Contract Termination
In the interests of competition (not politics), I feel I need to
jump in here with some other thoughts on Mike's letter and on the
differences between cryonics groups in general.
First, I think Mike Darwin was a bit hard on Guy Gipson's comments
about suspensions being a "refreshing break." I think the phrase was
deliberately intended to be ironic, not intentionally callous or even
stupid. On the other hand, if Mr. Gipson gets the opportunity to work
on a couple of standbys of friends someday, he may find out why such
irony can raise Mike's hackles.
Next, since it was actually a brief news note of *mine* in the
June, 1995 Alcor *Phoenix* (our members' newsletter; but available
through subscription for anyone else) that presumably touched off this
thread, I will reproduce it here:
****************************************************************
THE ADVANTAGE OF IN-HOUSE SUSPENSION TEAMS.
One of the most basic principles of Alcor structure is that
suspension services and patient storage are kept in-house. While
there might be some advantages to employing outside service
providers for these basic cryonics functions, in our opinion the
disadvantages far outweigh any potential gains. Recently we have
seen a very clear example of how things can go wrong. Earlier this
month, for reasons unknown to us, Michael Darwin, President of
Biopreservation, Inc. (BPI), canceled BPI's contract to perform
suspension services for the American Cryonics Society (ACS). This
throws ACS back on its own more limited resources for suspensions.
CryoCare still contracts with BPI for suspensions. Leaders of
both CryoCare and ACS state that they feel it is an advantage to
their members if a cryonics organization contracts solely with
outside providers for those services. They say this approach is
"flexible" and encourages "competition" for services between various
providers. Perhaps if cryonics was a much larger field with dozens
of service providers, this might be true. In the current situation,
however, dependence on a single outside company is highly risky. If
BPI should also decide, for whatever reason, to cancel its contract
with CryoCare, CryoCare could be in a worse situation than ACS,
which at least owns enough equipment for a transport and initial
washout.
Such a situation cannot occur at Alcor. The individuals on our
suspension team will change over the years, and difficulties will
arise when important team members resign or are suspended; but the
team remains a part of Alcor. It is not a separate company which
can "pick up its ball and go home." For the same reasons, no
patient storage company can ever tell us, "We don't want to store
cryonics patients anymore. Come and get them."
Alcor has the structure it does for long-term security. Your
protection is our protection.
By the way, Alcor Directors have been discussing the situation
with the ACS Board to see if we can find a way to assist ACS members
who may require suspension before a long-term solution is developed.
We'll let you know what happens.
****************************************************************
I'm sure, from conversations with CryoCare leaders, that they
consider this situation an advantage, not a disadvantage. I'm sure
Charles Platt and Brian Wowk and others would like to debate these
issues here, which I am happy to do. But the timing is poor -- I'm
leaving Wednesday the 28th for several days of much-needed vacation.
I'll look in again as soon as I can. (And I hate "hit-and-run" posts
as much as anyone.)
In any case, the beginning cryonicist should think carefully about
which group to sign up with. There are many considerations beyond the
obvious. For instance, while Mike Darwin writes convincingly of his
loyalty to the friends he has in CryoCare, we must remember that things
change. Mike was President of Alcor for many years and was a loyal
employee/Director/contractor for several more. We couldn't imagine
Alcor at that time without Mike. Yet things changed within Alcor (and
within Mike, no doubt) that caused Mike twice to cease doing suspensions
for Alcor, the second time leaving altogether.
I worked with Mike on various projects over a period of more than
15 years. Mike has his good sides and his bad sides (as demonstrated in
his letter). As Alcor President and as a friend, I deeply miss the good
sides. I am also grateful not to have to deal with the bad sides on a
daily basis.
Deciding what organization to join is much more than whether you
trust Mike Darwin or not; than whether you like Steve Bridge or not (or
substitute your own favorite cryonics leader's name here). There are no
perfect cryonics presidents, no perfect organizations. You have to
choose which sets of imperfections you want to live with. And remember
those imperfections will change almost on a daily basis, since human
beings (I've met them all -- not a Turing machine in the bunch) run
these organizations. Just a bunch of committed people working their
butts off to save the lives of a lot of other people looking for
perfection. It would be considered masochistic if we weren't trying to
save our own lives, too.
Leaders retire or are replaced on a fairly regular basis. These
are high stress jobs dealing with high anxiety members (it's life and
death, after all!), and if the leaders manage to anger less than 50% of
their members or Directors, they will still burn out eventually. Bob
Ettinger has retired from the day to day leadership of Cryonics
Institute this year, and Brian Wowk has taken over the CryoCare
presidency from Brenda Peters. And I've had plenty of days myself where
being stranded on a deserted island (definitely NO e-mail) seemed like a
terrific idea.
So you can't just depend on the individuals. You have to ask
yourself "which organization will take care of me long enough?" "Which
organization seems most likely to survive long term?" "Which one has a
philosophy that I feel most comfortable with?"
I can't give you simple answers on this. I'd like to be able to
simply say that "ALCOR, of course" is the answer to every question from
every person. Obviously it's not, or there wouldn't be several other
very different cryonics organizations out there. I'm trying as hard as
I can to make sure that the answer is ALCOR for the largest number of
people possible.
While deciding on a cryonics organization sounds like a pretty
daunting task, everyone should remember one big *advantage* we all have:
cryonics is still small enough that individual contributions of energy,
ideas, and money can have a major effect. You do not have to be a
passive member of your organization. You can choose an organization and
then have a lot to do with its success.
I can second Mike Darwin's suggestion that Mr. Gipson and everyone
else get out and *meet* the leaders of the organizations. See what
their ideas and their organization's structures are like; see whom you
trust for now; find out what might happen when they are no longer
leaders; see who needs YOU.
Finally, concerning discussions about Alcor cooperating with ACS on
suspensions: there are a lot of difficulties to be overcome in such an
arrangement and no agreement has been reached to this point.
Steve Bridge, President
Alcor Life Extension Foundation
Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4556