X-Message-Number: 24032 From: Subject: Some clarifications Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 00:45:50 US/Eastern Partly from private e-mail it appears to me that I need to clarify a couple of points Concerning http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/dsp.cgi?msg=24026 I used the phrase "failure to cryopreserve", to which someone took issue. In neither the case of the cremated CI Member nor Timothy Leary did I really mean to imply failure -- by CI or by CryoCare. The CI Member in question made a major error in trusting his cousin. Timothy Leary called a news conference and canceled his cryopreservation arrangements. Some blame CryoCare and some blame CI, but I did not mean to imply blame, so my use of the word "failure" could easily have been misleading (although in my mind not being cryopreserved is always a failure on some level). Concerning http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/dsp.cgi?msg=24020 (CI's 63rd Patient). I should clarify that CI has both funded Members and unfunded Members. "Membership" in CI does not mean the same thing as it does in Alcor. A Membership buys the privilege of doing the paperwork and arranging funding. CI's 63rd patient was an unfunded Member. Due to the fact that he was alone when he experienced a cardiac arrest and suffered hours in a deanimated condition before he was discovered, the relative who ultimately put-up the money hesitated with reasonable doubt as to whether it was worth proceeding with cryopreservation. So there was deliberation about both how to raise the money and whether it was worthwhile to raise the money. Good cryopreservations, with a standby team in place, are usually done for cancer patients. But most people die of cardiovascular disease -- often unexpectedly, alone or in the company of non-cryonicists. I would want to be cryopreserved even if I were discovered hours or days after my deanimation -- but I would greatly prefer to have a standby team or, at least, a rapid response. I believe that we are going to see a rapid advance of alarm systems in the next few years with the spread of cell phones, GPS systems and monitoring devices -- and this should help make a big difference in reducing the amount of warm ischemia suffered in the majority of deanimations. I don't want to wait, however, and am investigating what is available NOW. -- Ben Best Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=24032