X-Message-Number: 620
Date: Sun, 26 Jan 92 17:37:03 PST
From: Leonard N. Zubkoff <>
Subject: cryonics: #614 - Re: Transport of Patient A-1312 [Henson]

I really wonder about the benefit to the cryonics movement of posting the
entire details of a suspension to sci.med, complete with all the warts.  While
I do feel it is appropriate that the full details be publicly available to
anyone who wants them, thrusting this level of detail upon largely uninterested
sci.med readers seems unlikely to leave a good first impression of cryonics.
In order for readers to accurately evaluate the level of care cryonics patients
receive, they need much more information about the specific procedures involved
and the relevence of normal medical standards to the process; while some of
this information is available in the introductory cryonics literature, none is
presented in a typical suspension account.

Dissemination of suspension accounts on the cryonics mailing list and in the
pages of Cryonics magazine makes much more sense, as these readers can be
assumed to have a greater knowledge of cryonics, and have at least been offered
exposure to the introductory cryonics information.  Thrusting incomplete
cryonics information on sci.med readers seems likely to give them mistaken
impressions of the whole process, as seems to be the case from the few
responses I've seen to the sci.med article.

>From all accounts, "Dennis" got an excellent suspension, possibly one of the
best ever performed, but I don't really think this comes across from the
article, possibly leaving readers with a mistaken impression of the care
cryonics patients receive.

If articles like this are to be posted on sci.med, I think it is important for
the author to carefully monitor any responses and be prepared to publicly
challenge unreasonable criticisms of cryonics or the particular procedures of
the suspension.

		Leonard

[ FYI: I just copied the sci.med messages on "Account of a Cryonic Suspension"
  (minus Keith Henson's original posting, which is in messages #601 and
  #602) and put them into message #0006.  Several replies and replies to
  replies have accumulated so far and I expect more to follow.  (That is
  why I put this into a 00* message, because it will be updated.)
  Note: Someday I may change the message number, not just the contents,
  for this message.  (That is another way that the 00* messages can change.)
  Message #0000 will always show the current status of these 00* messages,
  though, so that if/when the 00* messages get reorganized, message #0000
  will be updated appropriately to reflect those changes. - KQB ]

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=620