X-Message-Number: 9374
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 12:43:06 -0700 (MST)
From: Fred Chamberlain <>
Subject: Growth in Cryonics & Standby Teams

Date:  30-Mar-1998
From:  Linda Chamberlain ()
Subj:  Growth in Cryonics & Standby Teams

(Comment by Bob Ettinger from CryoNet Posting)

> Let me say just a little more today about one of Charles' main
> concerns--the shortage of standby teams. As I have mentioned--and as
> I will discuss further at the Alcor conference--the use of funeral
> personnel can mitigate the problem.
> 
> I am well aware that Alcor and CryoCare believe their equipment and
> procedures are too expensive and complicated for use by funeral
> directors, and that their members should be processed by the best
> known methods. But there are always trade-offs, even if one were to
> concede that those "best" methods materially improve the patient's
> chances. 

I think that both Charles and Bob have very good points here.  And, I 
think they fit together in an important way.

The shortage of stand-by teams is extremely important and training
morticians can help, but only in delayed post-mortem cases.  We currently
have a high percentage of post-mortem cases, and as long as cryonics 
remains a fringe idea with only a few members that is likely to 
continue to be true.  And, in post-mortem cases (especially when 
hours or days of ischemia have been experienced, or autopsies 
performed, etc) the more sophisticated procedures quickly (minute by 
minute, while ischemic damage is snow-balling) lose their 
effectiveness.  

Optimal preservation requires standby because the moment the heart
and lungs stop servicing the cells, the Immune Inflammatory Cascade
(a powerful, protective, and complicated homeostatic mechanism of
the immune system) quickly becomes a systemic problem of such
major proportions that no biological mechanisms have evolved to
reverse it (in the wild, once an animal is that severly injured, no
reversal of this mechanism was useful!  The animals simply died).

Damage first happens on a basic chemical level, then cellular, and
finally system wide.  Yes, nanotechnology or similar repair mechanism
will be able to deal with structural damage.  But, (and this is a
very big and a very important *but*) nanotechnology cannot repair
structure that no longer exists.  If the cell structures are torn,
crushed and  scattered, nanotechnology will probably do a remarkable
job of figuring out how to put it all back together.  But if the
cell has been turned into jello, there are no parts to put back
together; nanotechnology has nothing to work with.  The best you are
likely to have is a clone made from still intact DNA.  And most of
us understand that a clone does not have the memory and identity we
want when we are revived.

At Alcor and CryoCare, our goal is to address the question of optimal
preservation under optimal circumstances, understanding that it is
not always possible to use it.  Not the other way around.  

I see growth in cryonics as absolutely necessary in order to get us 
out of the situation where we are fringe movement with very few 
members.  As I have said (above) this is a large part of why we still 
have such a high percentage of post-mortem cases.  We will not have 
an EMS system for cryonics until a large percentage of the population 
is in need of this service.  Until we can get there, a network of 
trained morticians will continue to play an important role in 
sub-optimum, post-mortem cases.  

Without growth (both for the power of numbers in membership) the
only other alternative for geting us out of this situation is (as my
friend Joe Hovey has just reminded me) is money.  And, we have 
struggled with that for decades!

Boundless life, Linda
Linda Chamberlain ()
CryoTransport Manager
Alcor Life Extension Foundation
Non-profit cryonic suspension services since 1972.
7895 E. Acoma Dr., Suite 110, Scottsdale AZ 85260-6916
Phone (602) 922-9013  (800) 367-2228   FAX (602) 922-9027
 for general requests
http://www.alcor.org

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