X-Message-Number: 9426
From: Ettinger <>
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 16:58:58 EDT
Subject: 21 CM

Saul Kent's #9420 is welcome--indicating that Twenty First Century Medicine
(21 CM) this year will seek new investors and expand its program, including
suspended animation research.

While it is too early to be sure, it seems logical to me that 21 CM
(presumably with the resources of BioPreservation (BP) available, if BP
remains separate) might then do the job that Bio Transport (BT) has been
envisioned to do.  

Try as I may (and I have asked those involved to correct me or inform me if
they have relevant numbers or estimates available), I cannot see BT as raising
either the investment capital or the revenues needed for the kind of readiness
and expertise envisioned, any time in the next several years. On the other
hand, 21 CM (including BP) will already have the capital and the equipment and
many or most of the personnel, and could provide cryonics emergency services
as a sideline, not relying on that for its main revenues.

Of course, even then it will not be possible to provide quick response at
distant locales. Most personnel will still work an 8 hour day, 5 days a week,
or thereabouts, and mobilizing a scattered team in the middle of the night
will take time, even with an automated alert system. If scheduled airlines are
used for distant standbys, there will seldom be a flight available within
several hours of the desired takeoff time; and in some cases there will be no
direct flights, requiring layovers; and in many cases there will be
significant  ground transport time needed at the other end, not to mention
waits for luggage (equipment) to be unloaded. So I still see a need (even if
the above scenario is realized) for a mortician network at least to provide
local emergency service including washout.

Incidentally, in Europe the Cryonics Institute's main cooperating funeral
director, Albin in England, has a chartered plane available, which at least
eliminates waiting for scheduled departures when there is a case on the
European continent or at relatively distant points in the British isles.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org

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