X-Message-Number: 26597
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 00:19:33 -0700
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Re: low-cost option
References: <>

Response has been encouraging to the idea of setting up a brain 
chemopreservation operation. Here I respond to David Pizer's questions (in 
angle brackets <>). My answers are supplementary to D. Den Otter's. With 
diligence and hard work I think we can get something going and we'll then 
see how much the public is interested.

To start: I spoke to  a local mortician (Stephen Rude, Rude Family 
Northwest Mortuary, Phoenix AZ) last October. He could do brain 
preservation using formaldehyde and/or glutaraldehyde. Total cost would be 
in the neighborhood of $2000-$3000 per case. This, BTW, does not seem to be 
any particularly unusual service possibility but probably many or most 
mortuaries in the US could do something similar. On our end, a company 
could be set up, call it the preservation service or PS, to deal with the 
mortuary, much as a cryonics organization would do to obtain desired 
services. (That is, the prospective client or representative would arrange 
with the PS to take the case and the PS would deal with the mortuary.)

<How would the morticians proceed from a business stand point?>  This could 
be worked out, for example with the person/mortuary named above if this 
were done in the Phoenix area.

<Are they set up to do one now?> Yes or I think they could be, with minor 
input.

<How much would it cost?> See above.

<How would the patient get his brain to them?> Through the PS. The patient 
would sign up with the PS as with a cryonics organization, only it would be 
less expensive and probably simpler. It should also be much easier for the 
PS to take last-minute cases.

<Where is the underground facility the brains would be stored in?> The 
place I know of is Underground Vaults & Storage, Inc. in Hutchinson, Kansas.

<How much would that cost?> The figure I was given, for 40-degree F  (4.4 
C) storage in a limestone cave, was $6/cu.ft./year, or (since a brain would 
occupy about a cu.ft, including packaging), about $6/patient/year or, in 
constant dollars, $600/patient/century.

<Who would store the brains?> The Kansas outfit would do it if the 
containers were hermetically sealed.

<How do you want to contribute to this effort?>:

     <Money?> My funds are limited, but I could be a contributor in a 
fundraising effort, or deal with lesser expenses out of pocket.
     <Time?> I'd be willing to volunteer some reasonable amount, say up to 
5-10 hours per week, other amounts negotiable.
     <Set up the company that does this? Run the company that does this?> 
These are possibilities; further discussions would be called for.

<Why do you think there would not be many takers for this much-less costly 
option?> Based on the intuition that, if there would be many takers, you'd 
expect an operation of this sort would be going already, maybe many such. 
*But I'd be happy to be proved wrong.* Maybe once the initial steps were 
taken and you actually did get something going, a cascade of public 
interest would follow.

We would also want to discuss a lot of issues such as whether to make the 
PS non-profit or for-profit, how the Society for Venturism might help (with 
fundraising, for example), and so on.

Mike Perry

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