X-Message-Number: 19195
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 05:40:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Information about Cases

I am interested to learn from Bob Ettinger the rationale for CI's
preference not to publish full case reports.

Lack of detailed information about cryonics cases is of course not just a
situation prevailing at CI; it has been (from my perspective) a problem at
all organizations from time to time. During some Alcor cases in the past
two years, a relatively small amount of data were collected, and virtually
none was published. Alcor is now moving actively to improve this
situation, and I am participating to a modest extent (I have written a
report of a recent Alcor case, which will be published in the next
issue of Alcor's quarterly magazine).

Personally I believe that as much information as possible should be
collected and published. If this is a known policy, team members will be
more highly motivated. If an organization has a strict requirement to make
all details public (within limits imposed by any desire of the patient for
confidentiality), the organization will gain respect for its integrity and
will never be tempted to cover up its errors. If logistical successes or
encouraging clinical data are shared, we can all benefit from the
knowledge. If we see how errors occurred, we will be better able to avoid
them in the future. Since human lives are at stake, this is not a trivial
matter.

I absolutely believe that cryonics, like government, is best done as
publicly as possible.

There is an obvious comparison, here, between the US and Soviet space
programs in the 1960s. The US program was fully revealed, including all
errors and disasters. The Soviets only announced their successes. History
suggests that the US did not suffer from its policy in the long term.

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