X-Message-Number: 6924 Date: 17 Sep 96 18:36:59 EDT From: Saul Kent <> Subject: A Proposal For Cooperation In Research In the last couple of years, I have made it clear, on Cryonet, and other forums, that my number one priority is research aimed at perfected brain cryopreservation leading, eventually, to whole-body suspended animation. I (and my partner Bill Faloon) have been funding low temperature research aimed at these goals (as well as anti-aging reseach) for many years. During the past year, Bill and I have been working very hard to enable us to increase the amount of funding we can provide for such research. Our victory over the FDA earlier in the year has enabled us to focus more directly on such matters. While we intend to do everything in our power to fund as much research as possible in the coming years, we are also aware that the magnitude of the research needed to achieve suspended animation is so enormous that we need the financial and scientific resources of all those in the cryonics community in order to achieve this goal in the foreseeable future. It was with this in mind that we greeted The Prometheus Project (PP) with great enthusiasm. PP was the first serious attempt in years to attempt to mobilize the entire cryonics community towards an essential research goal that we all share. We applauded the fact that PP was conceived as non-partisan and has thus far been carried out in a non-partisan manner. We eagerly pledged our money to The Project and urged others to do so because we believe that research should be the number one goal of all cryonicists, and because we believe it is the only goal that has the potential to bring us all together to mount a realistic assault against death. Although we were very enthusiastic about PP from the beginning, we were skeptical about how others would react to it and the degree to which they would pledge. We were very gratified to see that PP also struck a chord in many others in the cryonics community and that the level of pledging rose quickly...more quickly than we had anticipated...or even hoped for. We were also gratified to see that PP was, indeed, a force that was bringing cryoniclsts from every cryonics organization together to work towards one common goal. The recent report by Bob Ettinger about the rat heart freezing experiments conducted at Alcor opens a new avenue for potential collaboration among cryonicists. PP has been set up to explore all possible research avenues leading to suspended animation. It was set up to deliver a substantial level of funding ($1million for 10 years) according to a detailed scientific and business plan in order to persuade people that the resources and planning would be in place for a serious effort at achieving suspended animation. A second reason for the design of PP is that the most promising and best documented approach to date (vitrification) could best be carried out with a scientist who is not currently available to head The Project, and who could not be expected to be available in the future unless substantial assets could be made available. The report by Ettinger about the successful recovery of rat hearts from liquid nitrogen temperature using a method developd by Olga Visser opens the possibility of an alternative research approach, which could be as good, or better, than vitrification. The problem is that the Visser method is only beginning to be explored. Her research results have not yet been published, and its success with rapid cooling of rat hearts is only the first step in determining its possible value for cryonics and suspended animation. Among the questions that need to be answered are: Does the Visser method work with the kind of slow cooling required for large tissue masses? And how effective is the method in preserving the brain, especially large brains from mammals? Clearly, this type of research needs to be done as quickly as possible to determine whether the Visser method should be pursued by The Prometheus Project. The emergence of the Visser method is a golden opportunity for the spirit of cooperation that was emerging from PP to continue, bringing to bear the full financial and scientific power of the cryonics community to explore the extent to which this new approach may be useful for the achievement of suspended animation. Thus far, however, this kind of cooperation has not occurred. Here is my proposal to achieve cooperation among all cryonicists in researching the Visser method. Visser has revealed her method to Alcor and CI under a written agree- ment. A reasonable extension of this agreement would be to reveal (with Visser's permission) the details of the method to other scientists and investors who want to work with Alcor and CI to explore her methods for cryonics purposes. These scientists and investors would sign non-disclosure agreements to prevent them from revealing the method to others. The rights of both Alcor and CI would be protected by the exclusive licenses they have been granted from Visser for the present and future use of her methods for cryonics purposes. Such an arrangement would provide resources such as 21st Century Medicine's laboratory as well as Mike Darwin, Steve Harris, and other scientists working at the lab. It might also provide the resources of the U.S. Navy and Organ, inc, which includes Dr. Gregory M. Fahy and other scientists on his team, in addition to the scientists working under the aegis of Alcor and CI. We could all work together to determine and conduct the experiments that need to be done to determine the value of the Visser method for cryonics. If such an arrangement could be set up, both Bill Faloon and I would be willing to provide substantial funding to conduct the research at all the facilities involved in The Project. We would also encourage others in PP, and outside of PP, to do so as well. If there is interest on the part of CI and Alcor leaders in such an cooperative agreement, I would be willing to fly to Phoenix tomorrow to initiate negotiations ---Saul Kent Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6924