X-Message-Number: 8919 Date: Mon, 08 Dec 1997 21:18:23 -0800 From: Paul Wakfer <> Subject: Re: #8913 Donaldson on fixing patients It was good to see Thomas' statements about the possible limitations of *any* technology to restore currently cryopreserved patients. That point has always been my major reason for insisting that we must do research aimed at *perfecting* suspended animation until either we reach it, or we are convince from advances in neuroscience understanding of how the brain functions, that we *are* saving the critical brain information which defines us as individuals. However, I do wish to respond to Thomas' additional statement that: > possibly undamaged bodies too (which would mean that aside from the fact that > you're totally old and run down, have no immune system to speak of, have > muscles so weak that you need a cane to walk across the room, and suffer > from the mental deterioration which eventually comes on us all (different > from Alzheimer's, thank heavens, but still there) --- despite such problems, > you could be brought back in about the same condition as when you were > suspended). What Thomas' is missing here is the fact that now and into the foreseeable future, the vast majority of people become terminal from some specific condition long before they are so debilitated in every way. Once suspended animation becomes perfected, it will also become an elective medical procedure for any terminally ill patient, not just for the very old and totally decrepit. *All* that will be required to bring a specific person back, is to be able to repair the *one* thing which made them terminal. Now that is, globally, still a pretty big "all". But "locally" ie. for any particular terminal disease condition, it is not. Once reasonable numbers of people are electing perfected suspended animation, it will not likely be many years before the terminal condition of *one* of them (actually a disease category of them) can be cured. They will then be able to be restored to normally anesthetized condition, cured of their terminal disease, and sent home to recuperate with their now 5, 10, or 15 years older relatives. As an example, imagine this happening for a child with leukemia whose is healthy in every other way, with his or her whole life still ahead! S/he might simply end up as a "younger" sibling to those who were originally biologically younger, but no longer are. -- Paul -- Voice/Fax: 909-481-9620 Page: 800-805-2870 The Prometheus Project -- http://www.prometheus-project.org Perfected Suspended Animation Within 20 Years Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8919