From CI President Ben Best

Once again I want to make the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Cryonics Institute and of The Immortalist Society the lead item of my report because I want to encourage all of our Members to attend Sunday, September 25 at 2pm at the CI Facility in Michigan. CI Member David Verbeke is coming all the way from Belgium and is bringing some Belgian TV people (who will not film the meeting, but who will want to interview willing Members and to film the Facility). Representatives from Suspended Animation, Inc will make a presentation and other notables at the meeting will include the cryonics pioneers Curtis Henderson and Robert Nelson.

Robert Nelson visited the CI Facility early in July and liked it so well that he is coming back for the AGM. There should be more about Robert Nelson elsewhere in this issue, but in brief he is "the man who froze the first man" (froze James Bedford in 1967).

Suspended Animation held an open house at their new Boynton Beach facility on August 27th, which was attended by 25-30 people, including THE IMMORTALIST Editor John Bull, who should have some photos for us. The event may not have been perfectly timed because late August is not a time when many people (including "snowbirds") want to be in Florida, and the open house was only a day after hurricane Katrina swept by the area.

We received our 69th patient in August, an 84-year-old woman who was the first patient to benefit from Dr. Pichugin's Vitrification Mixture (VM-1) as well as from our new computer-controlled cooling box. We learn from every patient we treat, so in a sense each case is an experiment. But we are proud of the perfusion and coolingthis patient received and we know we will do even better for the next patient.

The new cooling boxes are a real breakthrough in cryonics technology, with LabVIEW computer control and a cooling system designed by a cryogenics engineer. The smaller box will be useful for pets as well as for research on cooling procedures. Donations to our Research Fund are always beneficial and are tax deductible when paid to The Immortalist Society.

We were prepared to have an election contest for the Board of Directors this year, but the only candidates were those standing for re-election: John de Rivaz, SR Luyckx, Joseph Kowalsky and me. So there will be only an affirmation, rather than an election.

I want to begin having social and local cryonics support activities in the Detroit area, so I am planning pot-luck dinners to be held at the CI Facility beginning this Fall. I will give lectures following the dinners for those who are interested. Sunday, October 23rd the topic will be "Free Radicals and AntiOxidant Supplements" and Sunday, November 20th the topic will be "Free Radicals and Ischemic Damage in Cryonics". Potluck dinner and social will be at 6pm and the lecture will be at 7pm.

The Cryonics Institute's 69th Patient

The 69th Patient at the Cryonics Institute is an 84-year-old female CI Member who had been living in a nursing home. Although she was a Member and the contracts had been executed four months earlier, no funding was in place for her. Under the circumstances, the Member's deanimation caught everyone far more unprepared than should have been the case for a nursing home resident. In this case, part of the problem was that no funding had been arranged and the Member was not funded until the very day of her deanimation. If she had deanimated on a weekend or holiday, funding problems would have resulted in worse care than she received. At 4am on themorning of Friday, August 12, 2005 the Patient- Member completed an asthma treatment. At 6am she was pronounced dead.

According to the nursing staff, those in the nursing home are checked every 15 minutes and our patient could not have been deanimated more than 15 minutes prior to the pronouncement. Immediately upon pronouncement the nursing staff phoned the Member's son and packed ice behind her head & neck.

The Member's son phoned CI immediately and then drove to the nursing home. Arriving at 6:30pm he packed ice on his mother's face and phoned the funeral director (a man who had handled one of our 2004 patients). The funeral director arrived at 7:30am, removed the patient to his funeral home and packed her completely in ice. No cardiopulmonary support was given. No heparin was given because none was available.

The son obtained a cashier's check for $28,000 and arrangements were made to send the $28,000 check to CI with the Patient and the transit permit. The patient arrived at the Detroit airport at around 7pm and surgery began at around 8pm at the funeral home of CI's local funeral director Jim Walsh. Insofar as this was our first American human patient since adoption of our vitrification protocol and insofar as we have not had a human patient to whom we could apply the protocol for nearly a year, we have had lots of time to plan and prepare for this case.

ROBERT NELSON VISITS CI

Robert (Bob) Nelson visted the Cryonics Institute on Friday, July 8th and stayed with Robert Ettinger until Sunday morning, July 10th.

For those not familiar with the early history of cryonics, Bob Nelson started the Cryonics Society of California in 1966 and remained its President until the organization folded around 1980.

WE FROZE THE FIRST MAN by Robert F. Nelson is a book which tells the story of his involvement in freezing the first cryonics patient, Dr. James Bedford on January 12, 1967. Dr. Bedford was the first person frozen immediately after pronouncement of death who had requested to be frozen for cryonics purposes. He is also the cryonics patient who has been maintained in a cryopreserved state for the longest period of time (continuously since 1967).

Bob Nelson was one of the early cryonics pioneers, and like many pioneers has a number of arrows in him and is accused of shooting many arrows. He is most controversial for his role in the Chatsworth disaster, in which nine cryonics patients were lost (thawed). Nelson and a California funeral director were sued in a civil action in which they were fined nearly a million dollars for "intentional infliction of emotional distress". Mr. Nelson is currently writing a book in which he explains his side of the story. Photos of Robert Nelson at the Cryonics Institute on Friday are on the CI website:

ALTERNATE CRYOPRESERVATION FUNDING

Elderly people often face the dilemma of how to finance their cryopreservation. Frequently they will have equity in a home, which they require for shelter and which would be subject to probate after legal death.

A means of addressing these problems might be the Retained Life Estate. With this legal arrangement the home can be deeded to the Cryonics Institute while the former owners retain the legal right to live in the home for the rest of their lives. The property is no longer part of the taxable estate of the donors, and the donors would no longer be subject to capital gains tax on property appreciation, although the donors would still be responsible for property income and property taxes.

Such plans are commonly used by benefactors to educational institutions, such as Washington State University and

Stephens College:

http://wsufoundation.wsu.edu/giftplanning/retained_life_estate.html

http://www.stephens.edu/giving/planned/realestate/

MEDIA REQUESTS

We have received the following e-mail query, which may be of interest to CI Members in the Los Angeles area who would like to participate in a student film project:

We are doing a student documentary on CRYONICS and were wondering if there is anyone in the Los Angeles area that would be willing to do an on-camera interview on the topic. We would also like any material such as industrial films or other footage that we might be able to use in our documentary. The e-mail address of Johnny Otto, the film-maker, is: ottosfilms@yahoo.com Phone 323.851.7182

******

Cryonics Institute Membership Report as at 28-Aug-2005.

At the 28th of August, 2005, the Cryonics Institute had 546 Members including one recently "lost" Member of unknown location. 407 Option One

139 Option Two

223 are fully funded with executed contracts

163 Option One fully funded and contracted

60 Option Two fully funded and contracted

Brent Fox wanted to know the year joined for Members who are fully funded and contracted

OPTION

YEAR...ONE...TWO...TOTAL

1976.....1...........1

1977.....5...........5

1978.....2...........2

1979.....1...........1

1982.....1...........1

1986.....1...........1

1988.....1...........1

1989.....3...........3

1990.....3...........3

1991.....7...........7

1992.....4...........4

1993.....3...........3

1994.....6...........6

1995.....4...........4

1996.....4...........4

1997.....2...........2

1998.....7...........7

1999....17....6.....23

2000.....6....4.....10

2001....22....6....28

2002....24...12...36

2003.....7...21....28

2004....23....6....29

2005.....9....5.....14

----------------------

TOTAL..163...60....223

Total Cryopreserved Population

69 Humans

20 Cats 18 Dogs

3 Birds 19 DNA (human)

7 DNA (cats) 2 DNA (dogs)

Plus one Bone fragment

The German STERN magazine is a Time-Life like publication with about 7 million readers. STERN is doing an article on "alternative burials" and would like to interview German-speaking CI Members, especially those living in Germany. German-speaking or European CI Members interested in giving an interview to STERN can contact the STERN-writer: Mr. Rupp Doinet [ Tel.: 0049-89-2429 7776, e-mail: doinet.rupp@stern.de -- doinet.rupp (at) stern.de ]

The Cryonics Institute now has two computer-controlled cooling boxes, a large one for human patients and a small one for pets & testing. CI's most recent patient (the 69th) has benefited from both the new vitrification protocol and the new large cooling box

Ben Best

EUTHANASIA UPDATE

Mikhail Soloviev posted this message on Cryonet. Update on euthanasia in Switzerland. Experts call for clear euthanasia rules. The government advisory committee on biomedical ethics said groups, which help people to commit suicide, should be able to continue to operate legally under certain conditions.

There is no reason to exclude foreigners from assisted suicide in Switzerland.

YOUNIVERSE BEING PUBLISHED

The Immortalist Society has published 100 copies of the current version (limited edition) of Youniverse. Some of these will be sold, and others given to people who might write useful reviews or offer recommendations, with the hope that such people might write useful reviews or offer recommendations to eventually finding a commercial publisher.

The number available for purchase remains uncertain, but copies may be ordered from the Immortalist Society, phone/fax 586-792-7062, Credit cards accepted are Visa, Mastercard, and American Express--or through Paypal. Paperback, 364 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, 12 point font. If supplies run out, orders of course will be declined. If you want to pay by check, the address is 24355 Sorrentino Court, Clinton Township MI 48035. Price in the USA, including mailing, is $20.

Postage abroad is steep. You can check the rates by searching the web, USPS (United States Postal Service). There are no special book rates, except in bulk for 200 copies or more. The book packaged runs around 2.5 lb. As I read it, the air parcel post rate for Canada (just the postage, not the book) would be $14.25, for Britain $24, for Australia $23.25. To order a book from abroad, price is $18 plus postage.

Robert Ettinger

CHRISSIE de RIVAZ WEBCAST

John de Rivaz announced that the cryonics webcast by Chrissie de Rivaz made on 2 July is now available on Tenantspin's archive page.

http://www.tenantspin.org/archive05.html

Joe Vinson, a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton, in Pennsylvania claims in a recently released study that coffee provides more healthy anti-oxidants than any other food or beverage! As reported in FLORIDA TODAY, his team analyzed the antioxidant content of more than 100 food items including vegetables, fruits and nuts.