X-Message-Number: 15624
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 09:09:55 -0700
From: Linda Chamberlain <>
Subject: 

One Week and Counting

As this is my first Cryonet posting, please allow me to introduce 
myself. I am Dr. Jerry B. Lemler, a Board Certified Psychiatrist, with but 
one week under my belt as Alcor's Medical Director. My wife (Paula) and I 
have recently relocated to Scottsdale from the Cumberland Gap area of East 
Tennessee. We are both Alcor members, as is our daughter Jessica, who will 
be moving to Phoenix within the month. Our son Russell is a senior cadet at 
the United States military Academy in West Point, NY, and will graduate in 
June. My recently updated CV can be found on the Alcor website, as can my 7 
page cursory introductory paper by keying in "In a Hurry?".

My vision for cryotransport is to augment the building of our organization 
to the point where we are unhesitatingly prepared to achieve the highest 
level of cryoprotection available to our members in an expeditious fashion. 
Naturally, this will not happen overnight, but I assure you it will indeed 
become reality in the not too distant future. I intend, with the assistance 
of key benefactors, to replace (in stages) Alcor's all volunteer cadre of 
transport personnel with a full-time professional staff. While we move 
towards this superior level of capability, we have no intention of abandoning 
those outstanding volunteers whose knowledge and experience remain essential 
to us all. They will continue to be trained in cryotransport, and work under 
both my direction and our full-time paramedic staff. Certainly, on those 
rare occasions during which we have multiple suspensions occurring 
simultaneously, volunteer staff efforts become even more necessary, without 

argument.

Additionally, in the past week I have become familiar with some Cryonet 
and e-mail postings, specifically grouped under the title "Concern Over 
Vitrification". As you are aware, up to this point in time Alcor has been 
(perhaps unusually) silent on the matter. Please allow me to "break the 
ice", (pardon the pun--it was intended, though), at this time.

Robert Ettinger has recently criticized Alcor's announcement of the 
arrival of vitrification for our neuro patients. We believe both the 
announcement and practice of applying advanced vitrification technology to 
neuro patients was and is appropriately based on solid scientific evidence 
which has been amply described in detail, and based on the moral imperative 
to provide the highest standard of care possible, acknowledging uncertainty 
regarding some important details. All evidence available indicates that 
gylcerol as a cryoprotectant in concentrations of 86% weight over volume 
produces ice crystals prior to vitrification, whereas the newer 
cryoprotectants, (used by Alcor in the last two suspensions), will vitrify 
without producing ice crystals when used in the specified concentrations. 

In our judgement, Mr. Ettinger's comments appear primarily political in 
nature, and should not be taken seriously as scientific criticism. To date, 
the most valid criticism is that more information is needed, and as research 
proceeds, such will indeed be forthcoming. We believe in the near future Mr. 
Ettinger's criticisms will be rendered obsolete, so expending time in 
answering him point by point now would largely be a misuse of our time. 

We hope and trust that others, (even those who from time to time engage 
us, as General Douglas McArthur was so fond of saying, "On friendly fields of 
strife..."), will understand the propriety of our position on this topic, and 
follow suit.

I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible, and hope you will 
feel free to contact me with your concerns and suggestions. I would no doubt 
be remiss if I did not thank Linda and Fred Chamberlain for having the vision 
to create this opportunity for me, as well as Saul Kent for his financial and 
moral support in turning vision into reality.

When the paperwork seems daunting, there's too many items on the "to do 
list", the phone is ringing off the desk, and the multitude of demands on my 
time are impossible to manage, I have found a remedy to pull me out of the 
doldrums every time. I simply walk back to the patient care bay, and stare 
at those dewars containing our 43 Alcor members. Then, I am ready for 
whatever, I promise you!
Linda Chamberlain
Executive Director 

Alcor Life Extension Foundation 
7895 E. Acoma Dr., Suite 110, Scottsdale AZ 85260-6916 
Phone (480) 905-1906 x 113      FAX (480) 922-9027 
() 

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