X-Message-Number: 761
From: 
Subject: Alcor Nevada Minutes
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 92 14:45:10 PDT

                       ALCOR NEVADA MINUTES
                Sunday April 12th 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Eric Klien               Cindy Piturka              Jerry Searcy
Don Laughlin             Ron Piturka


An EMT for Every Toe 

Jerry Searcy has gone through with his promise to make a large 
sacrifice of his time and energy for our group.  He will begin EMT 
training with me this August with Mercy Ambulance.  He will be forced 
to shift his work hours earlier twice a week in order to attend the 
training sessions.  Considering that he hates working earlier hours 
and considering that he doesn't like the idea of needles much more 
than I, Jerry has made the largest sacrifice that any member of my 
groups has ever made.  I never told Jerry this, but if he hadn't 
signed up for EMT training, I probably wouldn't have either as I'm 
also not a big fan of such training.  So Jerry's sacrifice has given 
us two EMTs!  

In addition, Cindy Piturka is already an EMT.  Cindy was concerned 
that with level 1 training, Jerry and I would only be qualified to 
give injections to dead patients.  Does anyone on this list consider 
this to be a big problem?  I was under the impression that 
stabilization teams usually just worked with legally dead patients.  

Now for the big news.  Don Laughlin has decided to train six of his 
employees to be EMTs, two for each shift.  This will give us a total 
of nine EMTs in Southern Nevada which is pretty incredible since we 
only have six Alcor members in Southern Nevada.  With Don's 
helicopter, we will have the ability to have all nine EMTs at the 
scene if there really was a need for all of them.  I have also heard 
that an Alcor member with EMT training will move back into our area 
within a year, giving us 10 EMTs -- one EMT for each of the patient's 
toes!  

Oh, I should point out that it is likely that the employees that Don 
will have trained will probably already have some previous medical 
training.  For example, the employee that Don spoke to at our meeting 
already had some medical training with the military.  (The employee 
was just at our meeting for a few minutes so he isn't listed as 
attending the meeting.) 

Clark County Fire Dept.  

I sent a letter to Richard Dismukes, the Acting Paramedic Coordinator 
at the Clark County Fire Department asking him to clarify his policy 
of honoring or not honoring our medical bracelets.  My loyal civil 
servant didn't bother to answer my letter.  Don Laughlin suggested at 
the meeting that I should have sent him a certified letter with 
receipt requested.  He pointed out that not only will government 
agencies often ignore non certified letters, but they will fine you 
if you were supposed to send them a letter and they ignored the non 
certified letter that you sent them.  

I said that I would contact Austin Tupler the following Monday and 
ask him for the best procedures to follow.  I decided to call Austin 
because he is known for taking a much less litigious route with the 
local officials than Alcor has with theirs.  Austin owns one of the 
three Alcor facilities in the world, the facility in Florida, and has 
had no legal troubles thanks to his ability to work with government 
officials.  So I contacted Austin the next day and he said to not 
only send a certified receipt requested letter but to use a lawyer in 
drafting it.  So much for hope of a less litigious route!  I should 
point out that Carlos, Alcor's president, had originally just 
suggested that I send a simple letter so in this case Carlos was the 
less litigious guy.  

I contacted Don Laughlin later that day and asked for use of his 
lawyer so I didn't goof up things further by using a poor lawyer.  He 
agreed and his lawyer contacted me at 9:00 AM the following day.  He 
had a copy of the letter that I had sent Richard Dismukes (I had 
faxed it to Don) and thought it was pretty good so he resent it 
unaltered along with a cover letter requesting that the letter be 
responded to.  And he sent it certified receipt requested.  All this 
just to get a policy statement from the Fire Department!  

Oh, I should point out that Mercy Ambulance does most of the EMT 
stuff in Nevada.  The Fire Department EMTs only come in for the hard 
problems, like people who need the jaws of life to get them out of 
their cars.  I'll gradually break the news to Mercy Ambulance that 
there are cryonicists in the area once I begin training with Mercy 
Ambulance.  

I passed around a March 29, 1992, article from the Las Vegas Review-
Journal praising the efficiency of this private emergency medical 
care provider.  Not only does it provide some of the lowest fees in 
the country without any government subsidies but it has been at the 
forefront of industry innovations.  For example, Mercy paramedics 
perform the advanced lifesaving technique of external cardiac pacing, 
which electrically stimulates the heart muscle much like a pacemaker 
does giving Las Vegas one of the highest outcome rates in the country 
for cardiac arrest patients.  Our U.S. Senate was so impressed with 
Mercy that it took some time from its busy schedule to present Mercy 
with the 1991 U.S.  Senate Productivity Award for Excellence.  

Stabilization Kits and Alcor Training 

It is planned to buy two stabilization kits from Alcor plus do the 
special Alcor training of our nine EMTs after our nine EMTs have 
finished their training in six months or so.  Don Laughlin will buy 
the stabilization kit for Laughlin and the Las Vegans will buy the 
stabilization kit for Las Vegas.  

Doctors 

I didn't have any luck with Katie Kars' list of life extension 
doctors.  One didn't return my call after I told his secretary that 
the call was about cryonics.  Another had his secretary tell me he 
wasn't interested after I said that call was about cryonics.  A third 
didn't return my call but he was at the same phone number and address 
as one of the previous doctors, so he must have learned the call was 
about cryonics.  (I did my best not to mention the word cryonics over 
the phone, but it's not easy to be allowed to speak to a doctor over 
the phone without being a current patient.)  The fourth doctor worked 
at a children's clinic so I crossed him off my list.  The fifth 
doctor had a recording that he was in Texas, so I considered him too 
unstable to be our family doctor.  I should point out that all these 
doctors were practicing near each other, so if any of them were 
interested in cryonics they would probably have learned about my 
calls.  

Don said that while his personal doctor wasn't a big fan of cryonics, 
he would do whatever was necessary to help Don out.  Since his doctor 
isn't a big cryonics fan it would be unfair for the rest of us to ask 
him to be our family doctor.  We'll have to keep looking.  If 
anyone's family doctor shows an interest in cryonics they should let 
us know.  

Chapter Certification Rules 

I mentioned that these rules are being worked on and if anyone is 
interested in helping develop them that they should contact Tanya 
Jones at Alcor.  

Sharon Fields v. Laurence O. Pilgeram 

This is a case where it looks like an Alcor member froze his wife 
against her wishes.  Alcor is not a defendant in this case and will 
abide by the court rulings in this matter.  I passed around the court 
document so Alcor members wouldn't be too surprised when for the 
first time, Alcor let a patient die.  To make a long story short, not 
only was a will dug up showing that his wife wanted to die via a 
Christian burial, but every friend and relative knew this.  No one 
testified differently.  

Department of Health Services v. Alcor Life Extension Foundation 

Actually the full name of this case to make cryonics illegal in 
California is "David W. Mitchell; Kenneth W. Kizer, M.D., M.P.H.; 
Office of the State Registrar; Department of Health Services v. Alcor 
Life Extension Foundation, Inc., a California Non-Profit Corporation; 
Ralph Merkle; and Keith Henson." 

The state lost the original case and is now appealing.  Here are some 
quotes from their appeal: "Or, even more specifically, what would 
happen to such estate and assets if and when cryonic suspension is 
successful and the decedent is restored to life?  Whose identity is 
the person to assume or be assigned and what of the record of the 
person's death? ... Appellants, specifically the Office of the State 
Registrar, are charged with the duty to develop a uniform system of 
registering births, deaths, marriages, etc.  In case of persons 
stored in cryonic suspension, the Registrar's Office is truly at loss 
as to how to register the status of such persons..."  In other words, 
the state wants to kill us because we are going to ruin their pretty 
mortality records!  I don't think the state has a chance of winning 
now that they have admitted such thoughts in their appeal.  

Here's a little more from their appeal:  "Alcor argues that the right 
to determine the disposition of one's own body is a fundamental right 
based upon the concept of freedom of choice.  However, such right 
must be balanced against the state's interest in regulating the 
method and place of disposition of human remains for the purposes of 
maintaining public health and safety and keeping proper mortality 
statistics." 

Pretty wild attitude!  I passed around the suggested response that 
Dave Pizer and I wrote in regards to the previous quotes.  This 
response was forwarded to our president, Carlos.  

Hydergine 

Katie Kars sent me some information about Hydergine written by Durk 
Pearson.  This medicine is used in France for reanimation, meaning 
that it can be used to bring very recently dead persons back to life 
in conjunction with other methods.  The basis for this is that, in 
conditions where oxygen is not adequately supplied to the brain, 
normally irreversible free radical brain damage begins to occur after 
about five minutes.  However, if Hydergine can be injected into the 
carotid artery within a few minutes after death, the brain will not 
begin to suffer irreversible damage for about thirty minutes.  Since 
Hydergine is a powerful stabilizer of brain metabolism as measured 
by EEG energy output, French doctors administer it to preoperative 
patients so that if a crisis such as cardiac arrest occurs while they 
are on the operating table, the doctors will have more time to handle 
the situation before they have to worry about brain damage.  

I asked everyone at the meeting if they knew anything about 
Hydergine.  One member said that taking the FDA-approved dose of 3 
milligrams a day seemed to have no effect on him.  He believed that 
Deprenyl was more powerful.  If anyone reading these minutes has any 
further comments, I'd be interested.  I am especially interested if 
such a substance would be useful in stabilization procedures.  

Recruiting Members 

Once again we had less people attend than the previous Alcor Boston 
meeting.  Once I realized that an expected couple wasn't going to 
show up, I panicked and did a mass mailing across Usenet.  I 
advertised in the space, astronomy, medical, virtual reality, 
Libertarian, nanotechnology and religious groups.  I actually found 
one person via the religious groups but he was in Michigan so is 
unlikely to attend any of our meetings.  I gave him the e-mail 
address of the head of the Alcor Indiana group plus called Alcor and 
had literature sent to him.  I may try advertising in Usenet again 
since it wasn't a complete failure.  

The Las Vegas Review-Journal ran my free ad this time.  I made a few 
changes to my last ad that wasn't run including adding a specific 
date instead of saying the second Sunday of the month.  While this ad 
was a complete failure, it reached hundreds of thousands of readers 
and was free so I will run it every month.  Now I can fail twelve 
times a year!  

I attended a second Libertarian meeting, this time having a private 
dinner with Marrou and three other key Libertarian leaders.  I had a 
lot more success than my first meeting as not only had one of these 
people heard of cryonics but he specifically mentioned that he was 
thinking of joining Alcor.  I believe that I will have a lot more 
success dealing with Libertarian leaders than regular Libertarian 
members.  It's like our luck with science fiction conventions -- we 
can't get the average people to join, but quite a few science fiction 
writers have signed up.  I am very pleased that I may become one of 
the few people to have significant success recruiting via Libertarian 
groups.  (I believe that the Chamberlains had some success using this 
method twenty years ago when the Libertarian movement was beginning.)  
Despite the fact that 90% of our members have Libertarian leanings, 
recruiting via such groups has a very poor record of success.  

Because of that second meeting, I have added one Libertarian leader 
to my mailing list.  I am pleased that he wasn't one of the people 
who attended that meeting.  In other words, the word is spreading 
throughout the local leadership that I'm an Alcor member.  So I can 
just sit back and let them contact me.  I do communicate with them a 
lot anyway, since I'm involved in the corporate tax repeal petition 
drive, the term limits petition drive, and the stop Marrou from being 
our presidential candidate movement.  

Guest Speakers 

It would increase the membership of our meetings a lot if a guest 
speaker attended.  My friends in Arizona would be much more likely to 
attend a meeting with a guest speaker.  And my Arizona mailing list 
is nearly as long as my Nevada mailing list!  

Patient Care Fund 

The Patient Care Trust Fund Advisory Committee will make its first 
investment decisions by the next Alcor board meeting.  I'll publish 
our recommendations in the next issue of our minutes.  Here is the 
current money we have to work with: $2100, $10000, and $21500 in 
three different bank accounts, $31000 in Symbex (owners of current 
building), $28000 in U.K. building, $41000 in accounts receivable, 
$5000 due from Research Fund, $181000 in property and equipment 
including stuff like dewars, $201250 in Benham Capital Preservation 
Fund, $453000 in Benham Adj Rate Govt Sec Fund.  The first fund 
invests in T-bills, the second in adjustable mortgages.  Carlos has 
been pursuing the wise move of transferring all trust assets into the 
adjustable mortgage fund.  As you can see he has already managed to 
place most of our liquid assets there.  Our current thinking is to do 
something like the following:  1) Close all three bank accounts.  2) 
Move from adjustable mortgages towards convertible bonds.  3) Put 
some money in equities.  (We are allowed a maximum of about $130000 
in equities according to current rules.) 

I should point out that my investigations show that because of 
various factors including the 10% rule where 10% of all unrestricted 
funds go into the Trust, the Patient Care Trust Fund has acted like a 
black hole where money enters but almost never leaves.  Alcor just 
checks once a year to see whether or not donations into the fund 
including the 10% rule amount to more or less than the money needed 
for Patient Care.  Often no money is even taken out of the Trust at 
this time.  Therefore the Patient Care Fund has little reason to be 
very liquid even though the rules make it very liquid.  It is the 
Endowment Fund that needs to be very liquid, as we need to live off 
the interest that it generates.  

Charlie Hartman asked if there was some way that members can put 
money into the patient care fund individually before they enter 
suspension.  The answer is no because of legal reasons about trusts 
and tax free status.  But members can buy Alcor property, such as a 
slot in our next building and pledge that as part of their suspension 
payment.  This is a neat way to go because the property will increase 
in value with time, covering more and more of your suspension costs.  
I will eventually go this route and drop my life insurance policies.  
My $10000 investment in our next building will be my first step down 
this route.  

Robert Heinlein 

Charlie Hartman mentioned that by having people who have made money 
be in charge of money, we are imitating Heinlein's writings about The 
Howard Foundation.  He suggests that we follow Heinlein's advice 
about an organization as a rejuvenation clinic from Time Enough For 
Love and the aspects of an insurance/suspension and revival company 
from Door In To Summer.  

New Building 

The new building has been put on hold because our competing investor 
bought the building one day before his hold on the building expired.  
We will do nothing more to look for a building in Arizona until we 
have received government approval to move into the state.  One of our 
options will be to buy the building from the investor who we believe 
paid $50K less than we were going to pay for the building.  

When a building is bought, a limited partnership "Son of Symbex" will
be buying the building.  "Son of Symbex" will be composed of large
investors plus subchapter S corporations composed of up to ten small
investors per corporation.  I want to emphasize that all of this is
just in the planning phase as we do not yet have a building to buy;
none of the corporations in question yet exist.  I currently plan to
name my sub chapter S corporation "Fast Forward Inc." but I am open
to other suggestions.

Next Meeting 

Our next meeting will be on the second Sunday of next month, May 
10th, at 5:00 PM at the Riverside casino in Laughlin, Nevada.  Take 
95 south from Las Vegas, through Henderson, where it forks between 95 
and 93.  Bear right at the fork and stay on 95 past Searchlight until 
you reach the intersection with 163 a little before the border with 
California.  Go left on 163 and stay on it until you see signs for 
Laughlin.  You can't miss the Riverside Casino in Laughlin, Nevada.  
For more information, call Eric Klien at (702) 255-1355.  I'll be 
car-pooling there with other Las Vegans.   

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