X-Message-Number: 6375
From:  (Thomas Donaldson)
Subject: To Mr. Elliott
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 1996 13:27:59 -0700 (PDT)

Hi again!

I should really let Brian Wowk answer this one, since he raised the issue and
is entirely competent to discuss it. However here is my 2 cents anyway:
at present, there is research going on which shows a very good chance at
success (but when I last spoke to the researcher he had not taken it all the
way, not for reasons of real difficulty but for reasons of politics and 
funding). The researcher works on kidneys because freezing kidneys is far
more popular in the community at large then freezing brains --- and therefore
gets more financial support. (He is also a cryonicist).

He also points out that we may well discover differences between brains and
kidneys (other than the obvious ones!) which mean that we could not 
IMMEDIATELY apply an ability to vitrify kidneys to brains --- but none of 
those differences look at all insurmountable.

While I do sympathize with people suffering from kidney disease and wanting a
transplant, the exclusion of brains from such research still seems to me a
sign of a quite perverted set of values. ("We will keep kidney patients 
struggling along for a few years more, but any idea of solving one of human-
kinds major problems should be ignored!"). But then I'm a cryonicist. You
get to work out just whose values are perverted for yourself.

			Best and long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson


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