X-Message-Number: 30115
From: 
Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 00:39:55 -0500
Subject: For Chris Manning - Re: Ted Williams' head/body

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Alcor has at least two staff people devoted to public communications; I
simply cannot understand why no one from there replied to this.  And
since nobody else did either, I'll tell you what I remember of the
scuttlebutt of the time.

Alcor was new at the time to vitrification, and could only do the head. 
Apparently there were some quality issues with some kind of backflow of
fluids if they attempted it with the body attached.  These issues have
since been largely resolved, but with Ted Williams they had a dilemma,
since he was a whole body patient, not "neuro" (head only).  That fact is
evidenced by the amount eventually paid from John Henry Williams' estate
- over $100K.  So, desiring to hone their skills in the current method,
they severed the head, vitrified it, and preserved in some manner the
body separately.  That's no joke; it was apparently the state of the art
at the time.  News articles from the period claim that one or more of Ted
Williams' children consented to the severing of the head.  I also
understand that for a year or two this method was one of the options new
Alcor members could select on their application.

I wish I had references to cite on this, but Alcor's case writeups are a
tad lacking, not only in detail, but many entire cases are missing,
including the Ted Williams' one.  This may be one of those things Alcor
would rather not talk about, but if I said anything incorrect here, I
welcome them to post any corrections/clarifications.

-- 
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