X-Message-Number: 646 Subject: CRYONICS - ACS and ALCOR From: (Edgar W. Swank) Date: Sun, 09 Feb 92 15:32:42 PST I think this thread is cooling down significantly, hence the removal of "vs." from the subject. I want to thank Keith Henson (msg 630) for his generally conciliatory message. I especially want to thank Alcor President Mondragon for posting (msg 632) the official Alcor position. It leads me to hope that in the future better cooperation between ACS, TT, and Alcor may be be a real possibility. Yes, Mr. Mondragon, you have gone a long way in addressing my concerns. I would prefer to contact you privately over the net at Alcor's net address: ALCOR <> rather than over long distance telephone. Is this OK with you?? Message 631 from Steven B. Harris was less conciliatory, but I think he asks good questions that deserve good answers. As I've said, I'm not a board member or officer of either ACS or TT any more. So I'll have to try to round up detailed information from authoritative sources over the next few (I hope) days. TT President Art Quaife has internet access & he may choose to respond directly or route material through me. The ACS office in Cupertino has a computer & modem but the personnel are not trained (yet?) in submitting information directly into Cryonet. I've volunteered to act as an ad hoc spokesman because I have the time (I'm retired), the equipment & enough familiarity with BBS & Internet operations to get by. > Subject to correction, I will give my impressions of what I've heard informally. Most of ACS/TT recent suspensions have been not of previously signed up suspension members but of members relatives (parents). Usually the decision to attempt suspension was not made until shortly before death or even after. Until last year, ACS paid TT an "Emergency Responsibility" fee out of membership dues for suspension members. Starting last year (roughly) TT started billing for this separately. I'm an ER customer & I paid TT $96.00 for one year of ER service in addition to my ACS dues. TT sent me a 2-page letter describing what the ER service and other services includes. I won't type the whole thing in, but ER Service includes: Maintain the Life Line 24 hour emergency phone notification service [connected with our Medic-Alert bracelets]... Assist in making arrangements for transport of Donor... Maintain ... equipment and trained personnel in a continuous state of readiness... (Art, this is letter file \tt\permann\services.ws2 dated 12/18/90. You are invited to send me this file, with any updates, for posting here. You could post it yourself, but I think it's a wordstar source file & may need some reformatting before posting. I volunteer to do that). ACS will accept suspension members who do not subscribe to TT ER. In this interim period, such members have tended to get the benefit of ER fees paid by others at the cost of an added fee assessed at time of suspension and a lower priority in the event of the near simultaneous death of a member who has ER. This is now in a state of flux & I'm not sure just what an ACS suspension member without ER gets. Certainly ACS best efforts to arrange the suspension, but I will have to await official comment for details. Trans-Times's ER service does NOT include waiting at the bedside of a terminal hospital or nursing home patient. They do have such a service, called Emergency Standby. It is optional and is charged for separately. It is not cheap! It was designed for use more in circumstances such as high-risk surgery for a few hours at a time. More than a few days of continuous standby would not be economical. I seem to recall (Art: please review for correctness) that a $500 deposit was required in advance, or an equivalent amount of Trans-Time stock left on deposit. (I have some stock on deposit). It's my impression that none of the recent suspendees have had paid-up ER at time of death and that no-one has ever used the Emergency Standby service. (Art: please verify or correct). This is about all I can say pending comments from ACS and Trans-Time leadership. I think all cryonics organizations are spread pretty thin in relation to the job that needs to be done. It's my hope we can to some degree coordinate our efforts and share access to our resources in some equitable and mutually agreeable way in the future. This should be of benefit to all concerned. Long life to everyone, Edgar Swank -- (Edgar W. Swank) SPECTROX SYSTEMS +1.408.252.1005 Silicon Valley, Ca Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=646