X-Message-Number: 2590
Subject: CRYONICS Update re CryoCare
From: (Charles Platt)
Date: Mon, 07 Feb 94 15:46:15 EST
News of CryoCare
In response to David Cosenza and several others who have been
inquiring about CryoCare:
We made our initial announcement, and held several
preliminary regional meetings, late in 1993 at a time when
our plans were not entirely finalized. We wanted to get
feedback from prospective members before we wrote our bylaws
and the contractual agreements linking CryoCare with its
service providers. (As most of you may already know, under
our plan, CryoCare hires cryopreservation, storage, and fund
management services from separate providers, since we feel
this gives our members many advantages.)
Subsequently we held a couple of regional meetings at which
people were invited to join CryoCare. A pleasing number did
so. I'm not being coy about the exact number; it's not
possible to give an accurate figure at a time when most
people have not fully completed the sign-up process and some
who expressed sincere interest are still "hesitating on the
brink." We should have meaningful data about signups within
the next three to four weeks.
In the past, when a new cryonics organization has been set
up, the main task has been to buy equipment and find
personnel who are qualified in the relevant medical
procedures. Oddly enough, this time around, the equipment and
personnel were already available. It's been the bylaws, the
contractual arrangements, and the other paperwork that have
taken all the time, mainly because we wanted to re-think
everything from scratch.
To take just one example: it took a couple of attempts, and a
lot of amiable negotiation, before I was able to draft an
agreement for any members of Alcor who want to switch their
paperwork and their insurance to CryoCare without risk of
being unprotected along the way.
Brenda Peters is now sending out a brief progress report to
all the people who have expressed serious interest in signing
with us. This will be followed by personal phone calls or
letters from Brenda. She took a well-earned three-month rest
after quitting from the Alcor board last year, but she's now
working very actively on behalf of CryoCare, and she'll be
dealing with signups for the foreseeable future.
I've produced four separate information booklets which have
just been printed. One of these booklets describes the
cryopreservation services offered by BioPreservation, and the
text was written by Mike Darwin. The second booklet describes
long-term storage capabilities of CryoSpan, and was written
by Paul Wakfer, founder of CryoSpan. I served only as editor
and designer on these two items.
The third booklet is a comprehensive overview of CryoCare,
and the fourth booklet is a history of cryonics which leads
to our conclusion that "unbundling" cryonics into separate
service providers provides the best guarantee of long-term
stability, efficiency, and service, in addition to giving our
members freedom of choice when more service providers enter
cryonics.
Those of you who have previously requested information about
CryoCare from me via e-mail should receive a plain-text
version of these four booklets by e-mail within the next
seven days. If nothing turns up in your electronic mailbox by
Valentine's Day, notify me at If you
have not requested information from me before, but you would
like some now, send your request to And
if you want the actual booklets in ink on paper version, let
me know. (The BioPreservation and CryoCare booklets are
illustrated; the other two are not.)
In about four weeks from now, I hope to produce the first
issue of our regular newsletter. Naturally, it will be sent
out online as well as in the form of hardcopy.
My e-mail provider has kindly agreed to set up a list server
for CryoCare, free. I don't know when this will occur, and
since they're doing me a favor, I can't be pushy about it.
When it happens, though, you'll be able to use our e-mail
address as a library, taking only those items which you want.
I realize that for the past couple of months, it might have
seemed as if CryoCare was dormant, especially if you were one
of the pioneers who decided to sign with us very early on.
Well, we decided it was best to get everything right before
we went looking for more members. You will note that if you
wrote us a check, we did not deposit it during this period.
We now feel that we have things the way we want them, and we
are ready to proceed. Please note, however, this is just an
informal letter for people on CryoNet.
For the record, the officers in CryoCare are as follows:
Brenda Peters
Charles Platt
Bill Seidel
Judy Norman Sharp
Kevin Q. Brown
Additional assistance from Saul Kent, Courtney Smith, Bob
Krueger, Steve Harris, Eric Klien, Curtis Henderson, and
others.
Directors: Brenda Peters, Peter Crowley MD, Brian Wowk
Our cryopreservation services are currently provided by
Michael Darwin and Steve Harris, MD, at BioPreservation. Our
long-term care (patient storage) is provided by CryoSpan,
under supervision of Paul Wakfer. In due course, as cryonics
grows bigger, we hope that there will be more service
providers competing for a share of our business. At that
time, we'll be ready to offer our members a choice among the
different services available. We think that this is the
direction that cryonics should take, and we're proud to be
the first cryonics organization that has been designed with
this in mind, right from the start.
--Charles Platt
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