X-Message-Number: 7690 Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 11:14:06 -0500 (EST) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: Gloating? On Sun, 16 Feb 1997, Mark Mugler wrote: > Now that the Vissers have the licence agreements with CI and Alcor, I > find the gloating by representatives of competing organizations about > their recent setbacks a bit unseemly. It would be helpful, Mark, if you could quote some text or at least name some names, rather than merely making a blanket criticism that could apply to many different statements from many different people. For instance, I have no way of knowing whether you considered it "gloating" when I quoted on CryoNet several South African news reports, without comment. Or was I "gloating" when I described the failure of Visser's demonstration in Scottsdale? For that matter, was Fred Chamberlain "gloating" when he described a video that shows that one of the "successful" hearts was not, in fact, properly submerged in liquid nitrogen? Personally I believe all these reports served a very useful function. They helped to spread factual information about someone whose claims and procedures are dubious at best. Re South Africa, please bear in mind that their Medicines Control Council prohibited the further application of "Virodene" because it contains "a highly toxic industrial solvent, dimethylformamide (DMF), which can cause fatal liver damage and has been linked to the development of cancer." I'm frankly incredulous that you should compare this with the practice of Dr. Burdzynski in Texas. Of course it would be preferable if Olga Visser's patients were well-informed enough to understand the dangers of "Virodene" and choose not to use it on their own initiative, so that there would be no need for the State to play an intrusive role. In South Africa, however, this may be a bit far-fetched. You talk about: > government stifling innovation in research and robbing people of free > choice. But just how much informed free choice does a poorly educated Black South African AIDS patient really have? And what legal remedies will his relatives have if he dies prematurely because a well-meaning dilettante poisoned him while doing "toxicity clinical trials with humans" (to use the phrase which she herself used in a post here on CryoNet). These are not rhetorical questions. I really don't know the answers. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7690