X-Message-Number: 9868
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 01:47:46 -0400
From: "Stephen W. Bridge" <>
Subject: Frozen alive?

To CryoNet
From Steve Bridge, Alcor Foundation
June 6, 1998
 
In reply to:
 
>Message #9852
>Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 21:05:15 -0300
>From: Homesick <>
>
>I was wondering if anyone has been frozen alive, being aware that this
>is highly illegal, yet perhaps there is a company that would do it.
>Also, if the main purpose of cryonics for the majority is to be
>"immortal" or at least extend life, should more attention be put into
>stopping or reversing the aging process?
 
From one point of view, no one has been frozen "alive," meaning before
"clinical death" (the cessation of heartbeat and respiration).
 
However, from an equally important POV, we hope that that ALL patients
have been "frozen alive."  It is not our intent to perform miracles and
raise patients from "the dead."  We are claiming that workable cryonics
will redefine when "death" occurs.  50 years ago, if a child had appeared
to drown in icy cold water and was underwater for 30 minutes, doctors
would have routinely pronounced the child dead, without attempting
resuscitation.  Today, resuscitation from 30 minutes under water has
occurred several times, once as long as 60 minutes.  Nature did not change
the rules.  We did not learn how "to raise the dead."  We learned that
people did not die when we had thought they did.
 
We are not done learning this lesson.  If we can someday revive cryonics
patients, they will not have really been *dead*.
 
As for putting more into reversing the aging process, there are
several hundred million dollars a year already heading that direction.
It is one of the biggest growth areas in medical research, as much as
the medical establishment tries to hide it.  But no one else is doing
cryonics.  We few cryonicists have enough on our plates already. If
you have unlimited funds, time, and energy at your disposal, feel free
to do it all. (You can add research into protein synthesis, molecular
nanotechnology, neurobiology, artificial intelligence, and gene
therapy while you're at it.)  Most of us in life have to specialize to
some extent to actually accomplish anything.  The specialty here is
the cryonics part, although we are all interested in and hopeful of
progress in those other fields.
 
 
Steve Bridge

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