X-Message-Number: 9800 Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 14:57:34 -0400 (EDT) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: CryoCare Questions On Thu, 28 May 1998, CryoNet wrote: > From: "B. F. Shelton" <> > prospective customer. One item sent up a red flag: CryoCare reserves the > option to increase its fee at any time in the future, to those currently > signed up. Obviously it is not possible for any organization to guarantee constant pricing for the next fifty years or more. All cryonics organizations reserve the right to change their fees. This is why I recommend index-linked life insurance to anyone who is considering signing up for cryonics. The face value of the insurance is adjusted for inflation on an annual basis. This entails a consequent annual increase in the premium, but basically everything is just keeping place with inflation. Provided your income also keeps pace with inflation, this should take care of the problem. > It also occurred to me that those who could afford to pay the entire fee > in advance, would be in similar jeopardy, unless they happen to have > other resources of undetermined amount that would suffice to meet a fee > increase. If someone chose, for instance, to set aside $58,500 (the current fee from neuropreservation at CryoCare), the money would earn interest which would guard against future price increases, assuming of course the interest was rolled over and not withdrawn. > On another related matter, does anyone know how CryoCare proposes to > provide services after its contract with Biopreservation Inc. expires (if > I'm not mistaken, the principals of that company have declared they will > spend all their resources on research)? Will they be using this new > proposed company "BioTransport" which Alcor has been promoting? I'll have a more definitive answer to this question in about two weeks from now. Currently Mike Darwin has stated publicly that he does not want to bear the SOLE responsibility for providing GUARANTEED service. In other words, he might like to take a vacation once in a while. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that Mike is solely responsible for all the work that has been done in cryonics cases for CryoCare and ACS over the past three years. He himself has already paid tribute numerous times to the other members of his team, among them Steve Harris, MD; Sandra Russell; Joan O'Farrell; Christopher Rasch; and Brian Wowk. Steve, Sandra, and Joan, in particular, have participated in numerous experiments closely relevant to cryonics since they involve femoral cutdown and perfusion using sophisticated monitoring equipment. Also, Steve Harris has participated in many cryonics cases. Steve, Sandra, and Joan all worked actively in the cryopreservation of CryoCare member James Gallagher, arguably the most complex "state of the art" cryopreservation ever attempted. (See our web page for details.) Christopher Rasch is a biologist specializing now in cryobiology research; he has a long-standing interest in cryonics. Brian Work has a PhD in (I believe) biophysics, is a former president of CryoCare, and is also working in cryobiology research. Joan O'Farrell formerly occupied a senior position in hospital administration and has run clinical tests of pharmaceutical products to meet FDA certification. None of these people wants to pursue human cryopreservation as a vocation, but all of them have agreed to assist in an emergency. Later this year we hope to hire an additional person (with formal medical qualifications) who will share Mike Darwin's responsibilities on an equal basis. One caveat: since the personnel I have listed wish to devote their time primarily to research, CryoCare has agreed to place a moratorium on signing up new members until we find a new staff member to share Mike Darwin's responsibilities. --Charles Platt Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=9800