X-Message-Number: 5182 Date: 15 Nov 95 14:19:44 EST From: "Kent, Saul" <> Subject: Opposition To Cryonics I agree with Thomas Donaldson that opposition to cryonics is weak. In fact, I would categorize it more as *fear* of cryonics than opposition coming out of any kind of strength and conviction. The primary reason for the problem Alcor had with the authorities concerning my mother wasn't that they didn't want anything new, although that is largely true, but that the issue became politicized because of one sentence in the first story written about the case in the Riverside newspaper, which led to a firestorm of media attention throughout the world. Prior to that we had been working things out with the Coroner's office in a reasonable, generally friendly fashion, and I suspect we would have continued to do had the media storm not hit so quickly and so devastatingly. As far as The Life Extension Foundation's problems with the FDA, they are quite understandable. We have done everything possible to challenge their authority and, in turn, they've tried to destroy us. The message is that they have failed and will forever fail, not because of our ideas or our innate goodness, but because we have fought them tooth-and-nail in a manner that they have found very difficult to deal with. In my opinion, the best and, ultimately, the *only* answer to overcoming the opposition to cryonics and achieving the kind of success we're looking for is to fund and conduct the kind of research needed to improve our methods, and then use these advances to convince people we have a credible product. I don't believe anything short of that will work. I further believe that we can achieve this objective for relatively little money in a relatively short period of time. ---Saul Kent Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5182