X-Message-Number: 9559
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 05:57:59 -0400
From: Saul Kent <>
Subject: Emphasis

        Bob Ettinger (in msg #9558) says that "current
leaders of some organizations want to put almost total
emphasis on research, very little on recruitment. This
seems to me badly out of balance."

        I am not a leader of a cryonics organization,
but I have been advocating emphasis on research
rather than recruitment, and so I'd like to respond to
Bob's posting.

        My position (as I explained in my 
essay, "The Failure Of The Cryonics Movement," 
msg. #9556 &#9557) is that we have failed in our 
recruitment efforts over the past 33 years because 
we have a product that people do not want to buy.

        I, thus, advocate an all-out effort to improve
that product, which I believe can be done, to a great 
extent, in the next 5-to-10 years.  Success in research
will, I believe, greatly increase our chances of revival,
while gaining considerable credibility for cryonics
among scientists, physicians, the media and society
in general. 

        When we have advanced cryonics methods.
and a major, ongoing, well-funded suspended animation
research program, I believe it will be much easier to sell
cryonics.  At that point, I believe we will be far more
successful in our recruiting efforts than ever before, and
that our success rate will increase progressively as we 
continue to improve our methods.

        That's my position.  And that's why I'm spending
as much time and money as I can on research.  It's also why 
I am trying to convince others in cryonics to follow suit.

---Saul Kent, CEO
21st Century Medicine

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