NEWS & VIEWS

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Thanks to the generous donations of Hugh Hart, many persons have been receiving THE IMMORTALIST without having to renew their subscriptions. Hugh Hart is now one of our patients and the Immortalist Society can no longer affort to underwrite subscriptions. Renewal notices have been mailed to everyone who is not paid-up. Subscription renewal information can be found on our website http://www.cryonics.org/info.html or elsewhere in this issue of THE IMMMORTALIST (or pay by credit card by phoning 586-791-5961).

Although we are not aggressively looking quite yet, the time is approaching when we will need another full-time employee working at the Cryonics Institute facility in Clinton Township, Michigan. We would want someone who is reliable, competent, willing to work for a modest wage and someone who is likely to remain with us for many years (ie, someone wanting to devote the rest of his/her life to cryonics and who has the prospect of living for quite a few more years). The job would include both office work (Member paperwork, computer data-entry, etc.) and physical labor (cryostat maintenance, patient perfusion assistance, etc.) Anyone interested should contact me at benbest@interlog.com.

Robert Ettinger is kindly testing two emergency monitoring systems. I will shortly be obtaining a third. I expect to be reporting on all these systems in the next issue of THE IMMORTALIST.

Male....328

Female..114

United States....332

England.............43

Australia............17

Canada...............14

Netherlands.........8

Germany.............6

Spain...................4

Sweden...............3

Belgium.............2

New Zealand.......2

Austria...............1

Chile..................1

Denmark............1

Greece...............1

Italy...................1

Japan.................1

Malta.................1

Mexico..............1

Russia...............1

Switzerland.......1

Ukraine.............1

BY STATES IN THE USA (5 or more Members)

Florida.............36

Michigan..........33

California.........33

New York.........28

Texas................26

Colorado...........15

Kentucky..........13

Illinois..............11

Arizona............11

Maine................9

Pennsylvania.....8

Washington.......8

Georgia..............8

Indiana..............7

Massachusetts...7

New Jersey........6

Virginia.............6

Maryland...........5

North Carolina..5

Ben Best

_______________________________

Toward the end of March an elderly CI Member collapsed in the street and was taken to a hospital where he died of coronary artery disease. The man had been an Option One CI Member for nearly nine years. He had prepaid the $28,000 required for his cryopreservation, which we have been holding on his behalf. His closest relative is a first cousin who was designated as the Member's primary heir on the Member Questionnaire. The cousin signed a "Consent/Release for Cryonic Suspension" form shortly after the Member joined CI.

Early in April we received an e-mail from the cousin indicating that the Member had "regrettably" been autopsied and asking how the prepaid funds could be returned. A series of e-mails were exchanged over a period of a week or more after which we received an e-mail indicating that the Member had been cremated. These e-mails are the only information we have concerning the conditions surrounding the Member's death.

We don't know how long the Member was in the hospital before he died. We don't know what kind of autopsy was done -- if it concerned a heart investigation the brain may have remained intact, although a week or two at refrigeration temperature would have resulted in considerable deterioration.

Five days before the cremation Robert Ettinger demanded the body, but the cousin saw no reason to send "mutilated" remains. Partly because of the condition of the remains I was reluctant to threaten legal action, but I finally did so a day before the cremation. The cousin may not have been checking his e-mail, but when he did reply he said that we were too late because the cremation had been done.

At one stage of the e-mail exchange the cousin said that he was away on business at the time. (The time of the collapse? The time of the autopsy?) At another stage the cousin insisted that the Member had told nurses that he wanted his body donated to science. The cousin insisted that this could not be a reference to cryonics or else the Member would have said cryonics. The cousin indicated that he had attempted to honor the Member's desire to donate organs, but that medical authorities regarded the elderly body to be unsuitable. Presumably if the cousin believed the Member still wanted cryonics he could have honored that wish and requested cryonics protocol -- rapid cooling at least -- or a restricted autopsy.

Possibly the Member did tell nurses he wanted his body donated to science, but if so he probably meant cryonics. In 2002 the Member requested and received a large set of back issues of THE IMMORTALIST. Also in 2002 he had received a new CI bracelet. The fate of the bracelet is unknown.

The Member indicated in his "Rider A" that in the event that he was not cryopreserved that the money should be given to his estate rather than to CI. Thus, the money goes mainly to the cousin -- the primary heir. The CI Board of Directors recognizes that CI must return the money because CI has not delivered service and because of the stipulations in Rider A. To have held on to the money would have made CI appear as money-grubbing as the cousin appears to have been (even more money-grubbing to media, if media attention was attracted).

If there is an object lesson here for CI Members it is that it can be dangerous to entrust one's cryopreservation to a person who would greatly benefit from a failure to cryopreserve -- especially when that person has little respect for cryonics or the wishes of the cryonicist.

I do hope that the recent cremation of a CI Member by his cousin has raised some alarm bells among CI Members concerning the possible dangers represented by the legal powers of nearest relatives who are not cryonicists or respectful of the wishes of cryonicists.

Not a single member of my rather large family has any interest in cryonics. My brother thinks I am a "chicken shit" for not wanting to "die like a man".

Most of the rest are very fundamentalist. For this reason I have made Canadian cryonicist Christine Gaspar my Power of Attorney for Personal Care in a document drawn up by Bruce Waugh (who is a Canadian cryonicist and lawyer) and by Christine Gaspar (who is a Canadian cryonicist and emergency medicine nurse).

The key features of this document are that my Power of Attorney is directed to ensure that I want life support to continue if I am in a vegetative state, but that if it is determined that to continue in that state then a cryonics rescue team is to be assembled and life support withdrawn once the cryonics rescue team is in place. A copy of the document is on the Cryonics Society of Canada website:

http://198.173.255.200/cryocdn/attorney.html

As you can see by examining the document, it makes reference to Canadian statutes which would not be applicable to CI Members not living in Canada. Perhaps the UK CI Members could modify this document for their own needs and I will ask David Ettinger if we can make a similar document available on the CI website which would be suitable for CI Members living in the United States.

The bottom line is that if you have friends who are more supportive of cryonics than your relatives, you should strongly consider giving those friends the Power of Attorney over the fate of your body rather than allowing your relatives to have that control.

Ben Best

In the United States, Living Will and Power of Attorney for Health Care are implemented on a state-by-state basis. The "Partnership for Caring" acts as a clearing-house by providing state-specific information about these matters. They have a hotline at 1-800-989-9455 which anyone with questions is free to call. You can try entering your state and other information to download these legal documents:

http://www.partnershipforcaring.org/Advance/documents_set.html

Remember that a cryonicist would not want life support withdrawn before a cryonics rescue team is in place. And a cryonicist must be clear that his/her physical remains are to be cryopreserved. The California Advanced Health Care Directive combines the ability to appoint an agent (Power of Attorney for Health Care) with the ability to give directions to that agent (Living Will) concerning Health Care and Final Wishes:

http://www.cmanet.org/publicdoc.cfm/7

Yvan Bozonetti announced on Cryonet that he expects to begin construction on a French laser experimental project. It’s aim is to build a technological center geared towards brain reader-scanner at molecular levels. More broadly, it would put in public hands some high technology such as powerful lasers or cryogenic technologies and some more basic ones such metal working or casting. Blueprints for the first unit may be seen at: www.freewebs.com/mz2/lesite.htm

He has the building permit and has closed the first round of financing.

By John Bull

The move was originally planned for last fall, but had to be cancelled because of CI’s problems with the State of Michigan. Once these problems had been resolved, planning resumed. The planners were Jim Yount, at the California end, and Ben Best and Andy Zawacki at the Michigan end.

John Day, representing the American Cryonics Society, (ACS) and myself met Andy and Dan as planned, at the Best Western in Rancho Cucamonga, Friday evening, April 2^nd. The Critical Care Research (CCR) people invited us and Mike Quinn and Chris Dougherty (from Suspended Animation) out to dinner. Mike and Chris had arrived a few days earlier and had spent some time at the CCR facility. After a delicious meal hosted by CCR, and some lively conversation, we agreed to meet the next morning at CCR’s facility at 7:30 AM.

We were met by CCR’s Sandra Russell, Mike and Chris arrived shortly, and also Mike Connaughton. Mike was a big help as he was part of the group from CryoSpan that placed the patients in the capsule a number of years ago. Andy started piping LN2 into the transport tanks he had brought from Michigan. When there was sufficient LN2 in the tanks, the workers started the slow process of removing the patients and placing them in the tanks.

The plan was for Andy and Dan to drive the truck with the two transport tanks with the patients, and John Day and myself to follow with the "back up" vehicle. The backup truck had one empty transport tank, and two full LN2 dewars. We had walkie talkie and cell phone communication between the vehicles. After all the patients were placed in the transport tanks and another dinner hosted by CCR, around 6PM we were ready to move out. After driving around five hours, we stopped at a very large casino just over the Nevada state line. The place had a parking lot the size of ten football fields, and was almost empty. Unbelievable as it sounds, they said they were "sold out."

After driving a few more hours, we found a motel that had just opened. Considering the hour, it didn’t matter that there were no keys to the rooms. We could lock the door, but from the outside, if we wanted to get back in, we had to go get someone from the front desk to open it! (Something about it being a new Motel, and there was a mixup in delivering the keys)

The next day, Sunday started uneventfully, although there was some confusion as to the time, between crossing time zones, and daylight saving time that took effect at 2AM that morning. By early afternoon, with Andy and Dan a few miles ahead we were on Interstate 80, chugging up a mountain when there was a thunderous noise from the engine compartment. The truck stopped dead in the road and although the engine was running it wouldn’t engage the transmission.. It was only because of John Day’s skillful maneuvering of the truck that we were able to roll back and off the road and on to the shoulder. I shudder to think how long it would take for someone to ram into us if we didn’t get off the active lane quickly. We told Andy by cell phone of our situation, and John Day urged Andy to keep going as the sooner the patients reached CIHQ, the better.

A few hours later we were being towed by a monster tow truck with a sleeper cab back to Salt Lake City. We stayed in a motel in the city that night, and the next day the rental company brought out a replacement vehicle. By mid afternoon, approximately 24 hours after our breakdown we were rolling again. Since we were a day behind Andy, he couldn’t use the LN2 dewars we had to top off the transport tanks. Instead he stopped late Monday at one of the LN2 depots he had previously made arrangements with, in an emergency.

So instead of providing back up, we, the "backup crew" had to be rescued ourselves, and for the rest of the trip while we kept in contact with Andy, he was always a day ahead of us, and arrived at CIHQ Tuesday afternoon, April 6^th. We, in the "rescue" vehicle arrived late Wednesday.

We were at CIHQ just a few hours when Jim Walsh, CI’s Funeral Director delivered an insulated box with an Australian patient in it. It contained the body of a middle aged woman who had died of breast cancer. Andy remarked on its excellent construction and insulation, noting that despite 17 hours flying time, there was still enough dry ice to maintain dry ice temperature.

Mike Quinn had flown up from Florida earlier in the day. Around 8:30PM he, Ben Best, Dave Fulcher and Andy started removing the patients and placing them in CI’s cryostats. Bob Ettinger, John Day and I were observers. The job was finished by 11PM.

By 7:30 the next morning John Day was on a plane headed back to California, and Mike Quinn and I were on planes bound for different parts of Florida. For me, it was six days after I had left home.