X-Message-Number: 12207
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: once more, a REPEAT about brain versus head preservation
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 00:24:34 +1000 (EST)

To all those discussing brain preservation (as distinct from heads):

Unfortunately the process of cryonic suspension involves infusing the 
brain (or head) with cryoprotectant solutions, which replace the blood.
And given the way that brains receive their blood (from the outside in
rather than from the inside out, as kidneys do) it becomes surgically
very difficult to remove a brain from the head without damage. That
difficulty becomes even more because brains have no "stiffness": a
living (or recently "dead") brain does not hold together very well
at all.

After all, that's just what our skull is for.

It may make sense to describe head preservation as brain preservation, but
to take that literally gets into lots of hard technical problems. You may
agree or disagree with head preservation, but right now it seems to be
the only practical way to preserve brains.

			Best and long long life for all,

				Thomas Donaldson

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