X-Message-Number: 7564
Date: 26 Jan 97 03:45:15 EST
From: "Steven B. Harris" <>
Subject: Visseral Disgust
Dear Cryonet:
A month ago, Ms. Olga Visser, a perfusionist in Pretoria who
seems to have developed a 25% N,N dimethylformamide solution
which allows flash freezing of rat heart with recovery of
contractions, had this to say about my skepticism of whether or
not the method would ever be useful for transplantation of any
organ:
>>Dr. Steve Harris reminds me of the insurance salesman who
believes if he talks fast enough and sounds intelligent, he might
be believed.<<
Very well-- let us speak now of belief. It now appears from
recent news reports that this same Ms. Visser has been testing
out the same N,N dimethylformamide on humans, specifically AIDS
patients, calling it "Virodene P058" (no doubt this is the
extropian name for the substance). According to Ms. Visser, as
quoted in news reports, the stuff destroys HIV, and has converted
AIDS patients to apparently healthy mere HIV-positives. Shades
of that old quack Hulda Clark and her Cure for All Diseases-- we
are now asked to *believe* that in the face of establishment
resistance, Olga Visser has managed to discover the answer to
both AIDS and death, if not the problem of taxes and how to get a
grant from the government.
Unfortunately, it also appears that Ms. Visser and her team
have also rediscovered a time-honored way of getting around the
stuffy old medical establishment in order to do experiments on
humans: one simply does it without asking. In some cases,
without asking the patients; and in others, without informing the
patients of the risks. And always, one does it without informing
the hospital ethics committee, which has no idea of what is going
on. Nor does one mention to the South African government that
all of your test subjects, who are about to get doses of a
mutagen and DNA toxin, all happen to be poor and black. For
these days, the government of South Africa is lacking in sense of
humor about such things.
Yes, dimethylformamide is a mutagen, with a great deal of
toxicity for multiple organs. Once upon a time, it was tried out
as a chemotherapeutic agent. Gram for gram, it's about as toxic
as ethylene glycol or methanol, and far nastier to the germ line
(reproductive) cells than either of these. All of which caused
us at 21st Century Medicine some consternation some time ago when
Visser announced that her cryoprotective agent was being tested
in humans, and was without significant toxicity. "At what
doses?" we wanted to know. At concentrations similar to those
used in cold hearts, the stuff strips hell out of red cell
membranes and kills kidney slices-- we found that in our own
experiments. And at far lower doses, it kills living whole
animals. So why would one want to give smaller doses still, to
living people?
As an experimental AIDS treatment, now comes the answer. As
AN AIDS TREATMENT??? Only a damn fool would give something with
this record of toxicity to human beings with AIDS, without a huge
amount of published and verified research of the effects of this
substance on HIV replication in vitro (in culture), plus
confirmatory research on its effects on closely related
lentiviruses such as FIV and SIV in animal models (cats and
monkeys). Where is all of this research? It certainly isn't
turning up on my computer searches of the world medical
literature.
Ms. Visser continues in her post to me:
>>Quite frankly, your general "Soviet style researchers" would
advise a kindly home of safe-keeping, without access to a modem
or type-writer, removal of "M.D" credentials, and some sort of
public warning for similar symptoms as those displayed by
yourself. I personally suggest a permanent holiday, before you do
yourself a permanent injury.<<
On the contrary, I can now say that I believe it is essential
that Olga Visser be put on some kind of holiday, before she does
someone ELSE a permanent injury-- probably some black person with
AIDS in a Pretorian hospital, who has enough problems in life
without falling prey to a megalomaniac. And although we cannot
remove Visser's "M.D." credentials, since she hasn't any, this is
perhaps not a bad idea for dealing with her South African
physician-colleagues in this pitiful affair, who surely bear some
responsibility also.
Speaking of which, we now come to that worshipful U.S. patron
of Visser, the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, which was warned
by us at Biopreservation that there was something awfully strange
about Visser's claims to be doing experiments with
dimethylformamide on humans, but which continued to fund Visser
anyway, and do nothing. I have to say I was at first a bit
surprised in this, even by Alcor. When it comes to basic
biological science, Alcor has long lacked the ability to find its
corporate rear with both hands, so to speak-- this many of us
knew. But they were warned in the Visser case by people who knew
better, so why again did nothing happen? When it came to ethics,
after all, Alcor has always claimed to hold the high ground, and
to be extra careful not to associate with loose cannons of
various sorts.
With a little reflection, however, I believe that Alcor's
commitment to "ethics" in cryonics will be understood to be a
rather carefully limited thing. For the Alcor Foundation, the
interests of "frozen patients" come first, you see. The fact
that what we are told are the "interests" of the "frozen
patients" just happen to coincide exactly with the interests of
the Alcor board of directors in expanding and keeping personal
control over Alcor's monetary assets, is to be understood as a
coincidence. The Visser publicity was good for the "frozen
patients," so there you have it. This outweighs all else. As
for the interests of *living* patients, be they Visser's
patients, Alcor's patients, anybody's patients, except insofar as
they represent potentially profitable frozen meat in Alcor's
dewars (in whatever condition makes little difference for this
purpose)-- Alcor doesn't give a flying f*(% about them. If one
understands this simple principle, the stranger-than-fiction
episode of Visser, and many other episodes in Alcor's recent
history as well, all become far less opaque.
Not unrelated to all this, Mike Darwin has recently asked me
to post something about the DSM psychiatric classification of the
personality disorder descriptively called "narcissistic
personality disorder." I'll be glad to. Here are the diagnostic
criteria as my handbook lists them. The more one knows about the
history of cryonics, the more carefully one should read.
-- Steve Harris
Addendum:
------------------------------------------------
Diagnostic Criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder
The following are characteristic of the individual's current and
long-term functioning, are not limited to episodes of illness,
and cause either significant impairment in social functioning or
subjective distress:
A. Grandiose sense of self-importance or uniqueness, e.g.,
exaggeration of achievements and talents, focus on the special
nature of one's problems.
B. Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power,
brilliance, beauty, or ideal love [the manual adds "Frequently
there is painful self-consciousness, preoccupation with grooming
and remaining youthful, and chronic, intense envy of others."]
C. Exhibitionism: the person requires constant attention and
admiration.
D. Cool indifference or marked feelings of rage, inferiority,
shame, humiliation, or emptiness in response to criticism, the
indifference of others, or defeat.
E. At least two of the following characteristic of disturbances
in interpersonal relationships:
1) entitlement: expectation of special favors without assuming
reciprocal responsibilities, e.g., surprise and anger that people
will not do what is wanted
2) interpersonal exploitativeness: taking advantage of others to
indulge own desires or for self-aggrandizement; disregard for the
personal integrity and rights of others
3) relationships that characteristically alternate between the
extremes of over-idealization and devaluation
4) lack of empathy: inability to recognize how others feel, e.g.,
unable to appreciate the distress of someone who is seriously
ill.
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