X-Message-Number: 3240
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 14:54:22 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: CRYONICS:Addendum re Dave Pizer


I now gather, from various sources, that when Dave Pizer accused CryoCare
of accepting patients who are paid for on an installment plan, what he
really meant was to accuse CryoSPAN of this.

The last time Dave rushed his opinions onto the net (as usual, without 
bothering to call anyone to check the details), I explained yet again 
that CryoCare employs independent providers for stabilizing/perfusing 
patients and for storing patients. This has been mentioned here so 
often, I should imagine everyone is sick of reading about it. But it 
obviously needs to be mentioned again--for Dave at any rate. 

So, repeat after me, Dave: My company, CryoCARE, takes legal
responsibility for its members after legal death. CryoCARE then uses an
outside storage provider (which was chosen by the patient), such as
CryoSPAN. CryoCARE retains full responsibility for the patient's
wellbeing. CryoSPAN will be employed to take care of the daily tasks of 
storage, under our supervision. 

The CEO of CryoSPAN is Paul Wakfer. It is his company. Those of us who
work for CryoCARE are in no way affiliated with CryoSPAN. In fact, our
bylaws prohibit any officer or director of CryoCare from being an officer
or director of any other cryonics-related organization, because of
potential conflict of interest. This fact has also been mentioned here.

Therefore, Dave, if you hear a vague rumor about CryoSPAN, the obvious
thing for you to do is call Paul Wakfer on the phone and check it out. Why
didn't you do that, Dave? You know Paul well. You know his phone number.
Why do you prefer to throw mud at us? 

Moreover, when you sent your post in to CryoNet yesterday, I gather that 
Kevin Brown sent you a note warning you that the post contained a major 
factual inaccuracy. Why didn't you respond to that, Dave? Why did you 
allow your post to appear unchanged? Did you simply not care that it 
was spreading a rumor that was totally untrue?

I realize that some people at Alcor persist in believing that the legal
separation between CryoCare and CryoSpan is a fiction. I hope they will
reach a new level of enlightenment when, in the very near future, we start
offering our members a choice of being stored by CryoSpan OR being stored
by Cryonics Institute. At that time, our members will be able to choose
for themselves whether they prefer CryoSpan or CI for the long term. 
(ACS, incidentally, already offers this choice.)

Regarding CryoSPAN: I believe that Paul Wakfer runs a financially sound
and ethical company.  Our agreement with him has some built-in safeguards,
so that we will be able to check on his operation and on the state of any
CryoCare patients who are stored with him. Currently, of course, WE DO NOT
HAVE ANY PATIENTS AT CRYOSPAN. All our members are alive and well. None of
them are in cryopreservation--which makes Dave's accusation all the more
inaccurate and uncalled-for. Plus, as I have already stated, our own
documents show that we do not accept members who want to pay for their
storage on an installment plan. 
 
If, in the future, we should ever decide that CryoSpan is NOT being
prudently managed, we will have the right to move our patients elsewhere
(under some rather complicated terms and conditions which are spelled out
in our standard paperwork). This is a major advantage of "unbundling"
cryonics services. If a service provider fails to perform to
specification, we are able to switch to a different service provider. 
Dave Pizer's close friend and co-director, Mark Voelker, was a major
architect of this concept, which is simple and easy to understand.
Therefore, Dave, it seems very mysterious that you persist in 
"misunderstanding" it. 

############################################################
Charles Platt, 1133 Broadway (room 1214), New York, NY 10010
      Voice: 212 929 3983      Fax: 212 929 4467

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