X-Message-Number: 9139
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 00:36:36 -0500
From: "Stephen W. Bridge" <>
Subject: Cryonics & organ donors

To CryoNet
From Steve Bridge, Alcor Foundation
February 10, 1998
 
In reply to:
 
Message #9132
Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 14:04:55 -0800
From: "Joseph J. Strout" <>
Subject: organ donation?
 
>Why can't cryonics patients also donate organs?  I understand that
>cryoprotectants are generally toxic and render the organs unsuitable for
>transplantation, but why can't we harvest the organs before administering
>cryoprotectant (as suggested to me by Jim Halperin)?
 
I wrote the following as an article for CRYONICS Magazine in 1996
while still President of Alcor.  This is based on conversations several
cryonicists, including myself, have had with people in the transplant
field.  Others, such as Steve Harris, M.D., may have more precise answers,
but this should do for a starting point.
 
**********
 
CAN CRYONICISTS BE ORGAN DONORS?
 
By Steve Bridge
June 13, 1996
 
     About once a week I am asked if a cryonicist, especially one who has
chosen neurosuspension, can also donate organs for transplant.  The answer
is a qualified "No."  There are several barriers, any one of which makes
post-mortem organ donation impossible for cryonics patients.
 
     1.   Alcor's ability to provide reasonable preservation for a
member's brain is strongly dependent on how fast our transport team can
begin cooling the member and adding protective chemicals.  Forcing Alcor
to wait several hours while surgeons remove a heart and kidneys is not
good for your brain.  We assume you are involved in cryonics at all
because you want your brain treated with utmost care.
 
     2.  All states require evidence of "brain death" before a hospital
can remove organs from a donor.  "Brain death" typically means that the
brain has had no circulation for 24 hours (not at all good for your brain)
or has been obviously destroyed by injury.  You don't want to wait for
brain death before we freeze you.  Your brain is you.
 
     3.  Even if you have chosen the neurosuspension option, Alcor's
surgical team needs an intact vascular system, including the heart, to get
cryoprotectants to the cells of your brain.  Removing organs puts holes in
that system.
 
     4.  From the hospital's point of view, they don't want organs that
have had our solutions pumped through them, even though these solutions
may be very protective.  It would require hundreds of millions of dollars
for research to prove that our particular combination of chemicals was
safe and effective for transplants.  It's not worth that.
 
Donations you CAN make
 
     Many prospective cryonicists wish to contribute something to the
health of others and feel uneasy about not donating organs.  You can still
help save many lives without causing problems for your suspension.  You
can donate while you are alive.  I don't mean just giving a kidney to a
relative, either, although that might very rarely be possible.  There is
at least one organ donation nearly all of us can make -- blood.
 
     Donating blood is simple, can help save many lives, and can even be
healthy for you.  Yes, recent research appears to show that men who donate
blood at least three times per year increase their average life-span to
that of women.  The most plausible theory for this is that iron
accumulation in the blood is a primary cause of cardiovascular disease,
and women have their own natural method of discarding iron -- every month
when they menstruate.
 
     I hope none of our readers believe the idiotic, backwards folklore
that donating blood can place you at risk for getting AIDS.  Many people
in the 1980's got AIDS from receiving blood transfusions; no one gets AIDS
from giving blood.  (Detailed testing of blood today makes it extremely
unlikely for a person to be infected with AIDS even by receiving a
transfusion.)
 
     If you are in a serious accident, you certainly want other people in
the community to have donated blood to save your life.  It is only fair to
put your share into the community pool to save other people's lives.  Look
in the Yellow Pages under "Blood Banks."
 
     When you donate your blood, you could also add yourself to the list
for bone marrow donation.  Thousands of people per year, especially with
certain forms of leukemia, could have their lives saved by a donation of
bone marrow from a tissue-compatible individual.
 
     Finding the level of compatibility required (near 100% for certain
antigens) can be like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Right now several million people have their antigen signatures listed in
the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) data base; but every year many
people die without finding a match.  Antigen matching is especially
difficult in the United States, with the nearly infinite mix of racial and
cultural backgrounds of our residents.  Adding your name to the NMDP
Register could save a life.  Making this effort as widespread as possible
could also give you a chance at more life someday, should you be the one
who gets the leukemia.
 
     To find out more about bone marrow donation, visit your local blood
bank or call the NMDA at 1-800-627-7692.
 
     Cryonics is a way of saving your own life.  It is selfish -- and I
mean that in a good way.  Understanding your own self interest is
essential for survival.  Being selfish does not also mean that you can or
should abandon your family and community.  Doing good for each other makes
all of our lives better and contributes to our own individual survival.
 
 
*********
 
     I will also add to this article that, while it might be possible for
the transplant team to remove organs and perfuse them, that would leave
the cryonics team with a currently impossible job to properly protect your
brain.  Attempts thus far to learn techniques which would allow us, for
instance, to perfuse the brain *rapidly* via the veins and arteries of the
neck have not gone well.  We really need a more intact circulatory system.
Rapid perfusion of the brain after the head has been separated from the
body does not appear doable by *any* surgeon today -- although it is
certainly true that not many neurosurgeons are spending sleepless nights
worrying about it.
 
     The most important point here is: as cryonicists our primary goal is
to do what is best for OUR patients' brains.  Any action which causes
delay is not good.  Give me a couple of billion dollars in research money
and organ donations from cryonics patients might be a different
story; but that money would best be spent in many other ways. For
instance, Harvard this year made a breakthrough in the cloning of
individual organs (largely unreported in the "Dolly" furor).
*Eliminating the need* for cadaver organs altogether would be a much
better use of those billions.  Patients could get transplants from
*themselves.*
 
Steve Bridge

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