X-Message-Number: 145 From att!osu-cis!compuserve.com!72320.1642 Fri Dec 8 02:55:17 1989 Received: by saqqara.cis.ohio-state.edu (5.61/4.891204) id AA02560; Fri, 8 Dec 89 02:55:06 -0500 Date: 08 Dec 89 01:49:52 EST From: Steve Bridge <> To: KEVIN <> Subject: Intro to cryonics Message-Id: <"891208064951 72320.1642 EHI48-1"@CompuServe.COM> TO: KEVIN Here is the text of a 3-page intro (or two pages with some creative laser printer work) to cryonics. I hand this out to members of the audience at cryonics talks I give. I also hand it to friends and send it to other people that I think might be interested but who might be intimidated by the full Alcor introductory book. For instance, I once did a mass mailing of this to everyone in my address book. This text is being offered to anyone on the cryonet who wishes to use it. It is not copyrighted; however, I would personally take it amiss if I later saw this with all of the appearances of "Alcor" changed to the name of some other organization. You are welcome to do creative editing on it, changing CAPS to underlining, etc, or using it as the basis for a more personal introduction of your own. Whatever you do, please don't make your interest in cryonics a secret. I have seen very few cases of cryonicists being harrassed by their friends, lovers, or co-workers, especially during the past five years (not counting certain legal officials in California if you should actually participate in a suspension). If cryonics is to grow to such a size that it will be effective, it takes education and public relations efforts by all of us. Just present it as a REASONABLE and RATIONAL decision, based on scientific evidence. Don't become a wild-eyed cryonics radical nutcase. Just as importantly, if you are signed up for suspension and no one around you knows about it, your own suspension may be delayed for hours (or permanently!) before someone at Alcor hears of your condition. CRYONICS AND THE ALCOR LIFE EXTENSION FOUNDATION CRYONIC SUSPENSION is an experimental procedure whereby patients who can no longer be kept alive with today's medical abilities are preserved at low temperatures for treatment in the future. Although this procedure is not yet reversible, it is based on the expectation that medical technology of the future will be able to cure today's diseases, reverse the effects of aging, and repair any additional injury caused by the freezing process. That superior technology could then rejuvenate suspended patients to enjoy health and youth indefinitely. The field which deals with this procedure is called CRYONICS. (This should not be confused with "cryogenics," which is the branch of physics which studies very low temperatures.) Cryonics is not a cult or a religion of any kind. The people involved in cryonics hold widely varying views on religion, politics, and social issues. Their occupations include scientists, physicians, computer programmers, business owners, teachers, librarians, and secretaries. However, they all agree that being alive is a wonderful thing and that this technology may help them stay that way. Cryonics might better be seen as a experimental medical technology. This label may seem strange at first, since many people have gotten the mistaken impression that cryonics patients are dead. Cryonics is not a new way of storing dead bodies. It is a new way of saving lives. Cryonicists refer to these frozen people as PATIENTS , because we firmly believe that they are, in some manner, still alive. People really are being frozen; it is no longer science fiction. Approximately 50 persons have been frozen since the first cryonic suspension in 1967. About 300 other people have made the financial and legal arrangements to be suspended in case they should become terminally ill or injured. However, any stories you may read about frozen people being revived are definitely science fiction. No human has ever been thawed out and revived, and it will be a long time before this happens. Medical technology has not yet advanced to the point where cryonic suspension is reversible; today's deadly illnesses and injuries are not yet curable; and even if these things had been accomplished, there is no point in reviving anyone until the aging process is fully under control. No one wants to be reawakened as an aged, infirm person. Cryonics is not yet accepted as a legitimate life-saving procedure by today's medical authorities. With our current technology we cannot prove that a frozen human can be repaired and revived (although a great deal of research suggests that this will be possible in the future). Unfortunately, this situation creates numerous medical, legal, and even political difficulties. For instance, if a patient were to be suspended while he was legally alive, someone might claim that the suspension process itself had killed that patient, creating the possibility of criminal or civil charges against the suspension team. Therefore, current cryonics practice is to suspend dying patients as soon as possible after cardiac arrest (stopping of the heart) and declaration of "legal death." This course of action can be seen as reasonable once one realizes that "legal death" is not the same as "biological death." A physician declares legal death when a patient's condition cannot be repaired with current medical knowledge and techniques. However, the process of deterioration which we call "dying" is not a sudden happening. It is much more like slipping into an ever deepening coma. Even several hours after declaration of death, most of the cells in the body (including those in the brain) are still individually alive and ready to regain function. As late as the 1940's, people who stopped breathing because of heart attacks or drowning were routinely declared dead. Today thousands of people have survived heart attacks and other conditions which would have been fatal 40 years ago. Children have survived over an hour of "drowning" in cold water. Were those heart attack and drowning victims really dead forty years ago, but nature has changed the rules today? Of course not; those people were still alive-- doctors just did not know what to do about it. In the same way, most people who are declared dead TODAY would be called "alive" by doctors of the future. With that prospect in mind, we think these patients should be considered "alive" NOW, and we should do something to KEEP them that way. Even within the next 10-15 years, you are likely to be amazed by the amount of progress in recovering patients from strokes, heart attacks, and lack of oxygen to the brain. Ultimately, it should be possible to recover patients as long as basic brain structure remains intact (several hours past the point at which today's doctors give up). In the next century, the medical knowledge of the 1980's will seem as primitive as the medical understandings of one hundred years ago seem to us. Cryonic suspension itself will cure nothing, but it buys time for the patient, keeping his body virtually unchanged until a future when his frozen condition may be considered only an extremely deep coma. Even now there is solid evidence that cooling the human body to liquid nitrogen temperature (-320o F), with the use of techniques to reduce freezing injury, can preserve the fine structure of the brain indefinitely. There is no guarantee that cryonic suspension will ever allow for future revival. We do not know enough to state absolutely that this procedure is workable. However, the case for the possible future revival of suspended patients grows stronger all of the time. One recent argument in favor of future repair and revival of suspended patients was provided by K. Eric Drexler in his fascinating book, ENGINES OF CREATION (Doubleday, 1986). This book details the beginnings of the new field of "nanotechnology" (also called "molecular engineering"). Nanotechnology is the next step smaller than micro- technology, and it will create industries which will operate by working with atoms and molecules one at a time. Among other astounding developments, this will lead to computers and cell repair machines one thousand times smaller than a human cell. Such devices could repair any disease or injury (including that from freezing) by working directly on the cells themselves. It must be pointed out that cryonicists are not people with some fixation on cold temperatures. None of us want to be frozen. We are simply people who like being alive, and who want to see the future and all of its wonders. For us, cryonics provides a safety net, a last- ditch attempt at life-saving which may give us the chance to see that future. Our cryonics organization, Alcor Life Extension Foundation ("Alcor"), is a California not-for-profit corporation, registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt scientific organization. Alcor has a fully equipped and operational research laboratory, operating room, and patient storage facility in Riverside, California. Alcor was formed as a mutual aid society, where the members are committed to helping each other. All Alcor board members, officials, and suspension team personnel are required to be full suspension members. We do not want a situation which could pit "Alcor" against "the members." Alcor IS its members. All decisions on the safety of the patients and stability of the organization are made with the knowledge that they will affect everyone in the organization. If you would like further information, you may order the following publications (among others) from Alcor: ALCOR: THRESHOLD TO TOMORROW (introductory booklet) FREE for 1st copy. Extra copies $5.00 each. THE SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF CRYONICS (selected reprints) $10.00. SIGNING UP MADE SIMPLE (How to provide the legal and financial arrangements for cryonic suspension, with filled-out sample forms.) $12.00. Subscription to CRYONICS magazine at $25.00 per year (12 issues). Fascinating articles and discussion on the current state of cryonics, plus science updates. Please send check or money order; no cash over $1.00 please. Phone toll-free to use Visa or MasterCard. Make all checks payable to Alcor Life Extension Foundation and mail to: Alcor Life Extension Foundation 12327 Doherty Street, Riverside, California 92503 Telephone 800-367-2228. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=145