X-Message-Number: 4888 From: Brian Wowk <> Date: Tue, 19 Sep 1995 19:03:18 -0500 Subject: Brain-only I disagree with Doug Skrecky that a "brain freezing" option would revolutionize cryonics marketing. The general public has psychological barriers to cryonics that go far beyond issues of cost. If you offered cryonics for FREE, you would still be surprised at how few takers there would be. That's not to say there isn't a market niche in cryonics for brain freezing. I believe there is, but it could not be done for $10,000. $10,000 is the pure cost of long-term storage. It does not consider the administrative pain (and I mean PAIN) of organizing a cryopreservation, transportation costs, mortician and pathologist bills. Even finding people willing and able to extract brains for cryonics cases is not easy. $20,000 is a better estimate than $10,000 , and that's with *no* decent cryoprotective perfusion. This proposal actually carries an undercurrent of hidden assumptions and motives that need to be discussed. In particular, *why* do we want people lining up at our door to have their brains frozen? Cryonics for me is not a numbers game. Decades from now I will not measure my success in cryonics by how many brains (in or out of bodies) I've stacked up and frozen. Rather I will ask, What is the "state of the art" that cryonics has advanced to? What technological and social infrastructure has come to exist to ensure that cryonics will work for me and my family? It is not obvious to me how recruiting hoardes of dying people (yes, dying people-- I can't imagine young and healthy people taking this option) to freeze their brain under terrible conditions will advance the technology or medico-social underpinnings of cryonics. None of this is to say that CryoCare won't offer a brain freezing option in the future (on compassionate grounds, perhaps). But I feel little incentive to do so now, and quite frankly a dearth of time and resources to indulge in this particular form of compassion. Brian Wowk President, CryoCare Foundation Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4888