These are most of the articles I had published in Funeral Service Journal over a space of several years between 1987 and 1995. The presence of these articles enabled Alcor UK Ltd to achieve a professional relationship with the funeral directors' profession, and also they encouraged Barry Albin, of F. A. Albin and Son, to become the official European representative of the Cryonics Institute. He has since used the special caskets he has made to arrange transport of cryopreservation patients from Europe to Michigan, USA.
I recommend that you download this page and then save it and read it off line. Use you browser's search facility to look for specific words if you like.
The articles appear in the order with which they were written, and some of the earlier ones (written before I had a PC) and not here.
Last time in Funeral Service Journal I detailed the services of Trygve Bauge in arranging post mortem suspensions. I also intimated that the cost effective Cryonics Institute had reversed their policy on disallowing non-member or post mortem suspensions.
In October, 1990, an elderly French woman was preserved by her son, with a view to cryonic storage. For some unexplained reason, he didn't contact the American cryonics societies until the woman had been held in hospital storage at around zero degrees Celsius for around a fortnight. This courageous man spoke no English, but booked transatlantic calls via an interpreter to the American Cryonics Society, Alcor, Trans Time, and the Cryonics Institute. There were many problems, but the main difficulties involved money, bureaucracy and legal risks. Trans Time briefly hired Mr Bauge to work on the case, although there was a misunderstanding inasmuch as the son didn't realise he would have to pay him separately. Mr Bauge has from now on made it a policy to set out the financial effects of using his assistance (detailed in the previous article) clearly in advance. Alcor were quickly rejected, on grounds of cost and their policy of never relinquishing control of a patient once in their care. The son was never interested in head only storage, or neuropreservation as it is known by the cryonicists. Trans Time were amenable to all the man's wishes, but regretfully he could not raise their fees.
That left the Cryonics Institute as the only organisation that might be affordable, with its one-time payment of $1,250 for membership and $28,000 minimum contract funding, with no other charges ever. After taking other expenses into consideration, the main one being shipment of the remains, it might just be feasible for the son, if he were to mortgage his house and spend all his life savings.
The directors of the Cryonics Institute held a telephone conference to discuss the case. For them there were four main considerations.
One was the son's requirement that he should have the option of later removing his mother's remains from their care. The Cryonics Institute's standard contract does not allow removal of patients. However the directors decided, with commendable flexibility, that this case was exceptional. The patient herself had not made the cryonics arrangements or paid the money, and would have been be buried or cremated had her son not arranged her suspension. Therefore they decided to allow the right to the son to remove the remains if he wished on 30 days notice and provided that there would be no refund of part of the payment, and that the privilege would not pass to any successor or any other person.
Another was the appalling condition, from a cryonics perspective, of the body. It had been held at zero Celsius for two weeks, not perfused and cooled to dry ice temperature as is recommended in cryonic procedures. Would the chance of revival be so poor that the suspension would throw bad light on the credibility of the movement as a whole? The directors decided that in the lack of any clear cut information, the fact that the son appeared to be aware of the circumstances and implications was sufficient for the suspension to proceed. This question as to how well the next of kin was informed as to the nature of cryonics formed the third area of discussion by the directors. They videotaped an interview at the Cryonics Institute laboratory with the son using a neutral French interpreter, so that they had a record of his understanding at the time. The final quandary was the fact that the son would be consuming his life's savings and indeed mortgaging his home. There is the risk that there could be future litigation to the effect that he had acted and been unduly influenced to make a rash decision at a time of grief. They decided that the correct course of action was to make extraordinary efforts to make him understand the negatives, take disinterested advice, and have time to cool off before making a final decision.
At the time of writing, the son is making arrangements for the storage to continue at dry ice temperature, and attempts are being made with the French authorities to allow storage to continue either at home or at a cemetery. Shipment to the Cryonics Institute remains an open option.
Alcor Inc have published an article in Cryonics deprecating the services of Mr Trygve Bauge in arranging cryonic suspensions for people who have done no prior legal work.
Alcor state that only Alcor or an Alcor authorised representative can act to negotiate for accepting or refusing any person, living or legally dead into Alcor's suspension program. They will not deal with Mr Bauge or any other unapproved intermediary.
Dr Anatole Dolinoff, a long-time French cryonicist, is quoted by Cryonics as saying that he was horrified by Mr Bauge's letter detailing his terms of payment for helping sort out cryonics cases. Dr Dolinoff claimed that Professor Ettinger of the Cryonics Institute "is not at all willing to be involved in anything of that kind."
Alcor have also disowned a similar service offered by Mr Charles Tandy, a researcher formerly employed by the Life Extension Foundation of Florida. This foundation had previously helped Alcor financially at a time when it was less well known. Alcor accused Mr Tandy of reprinting an Alcor brochure, altering the wording slightly, and adding the names of two other cryonics societies, without their knowledge or consent.
The American Cryonics Society, (PO Box 761, Cupertino, CA 95015, USA [(408) 446-4425 or 255-1763. Fax: 408-973-1046: after hours: 725-0385]), would be willing to accept "mortuary level" suspensions coming from Europe, according to their Secretary, Mr Jim Yount. However Dr Art Quaife, director of Trans Time Inc., the company used by the American Cryonics Society to perform suspensions, said that such last minute suspensions usually fail though money problems and government regulations over shipping a remains between countries.
It is the American Cryonics Society's advice that perfusion and dry-ice freezing should proceed as quickly as possible using morticians or whatever facilities are available. When the patient is in dry ice, arrange with the American Cryonics Society for him to be stored by Trans Time or the Cryonics Institute. Either way, the American Cryonics Society is willing to act in the client's behalf in making arrangements as well as providing telephone consultation and instructions.
The Cryonics Institute have announced that they will be surcharging non-member suspensions. These will cost $35,000 instead of $28,000. They say this is to discourage procrastination. Nevertheless, $35,000 is about £18,000 and is considerably less for their whole body service than Alcor's heads only fee.
Most newspapers carried the story at one time or another that Saddam Hussein applied to the American Cryonics Society for details of cryonic suspension a few months before he invaded Kuwait. The society, headed by an Israeli, Dr Ben Abraham, said that they would have considered his application before the invasion, but not now. They have not heard anything more for some while, but Dr Ben Abraham has instructed that any further communication from that quarter is to be handed to him personally for attention.
Amongst the US servicemen taking part in Desert Storm is a Marine Captain who has made cryonic suspension arrangements through the American Cryonics Society. This is the first time a suspension member of any cryonics society has been involved in active service during hostilities. The Captain will be carrying special cold bags. These contain two chemicals in separate compartments. When the seal is broken, they combine and perform an endothermic reaction, which refrigerates their surroundings. It is hoped that in an emergency these will help preserve his remains until they can be conveyed to a place where perfusion and suspension can be carried out.
The greatest fear of the cryonicist is autopsy. The procedures used, which are entirely for the benefit of The State not The Individual, involve gross violation of the body and more importantly the brain, which includes the mind. Sufficient information to recover that mind is believed to be contained within a newly deceased brain, although this information is lost with rotting or burning - or autopsy.
Often, as cryonicists may put it, the brain is "ripped from the skull and torn into shreds". (Or in the pathologists' terms, removed from the skull and sectioned.) The purpose of sectioning the brain is to investigate for illegal forms of death and also to determine whether the patient had any dementia. Data gathered during autopsies benefits the State inasmuch as it provides demographic information as to the spread of disease and also it helps medical research.
The brain is the body part that is of most interest to cryonicists. It contains the program and data that make humans individual, and indeed some cryonicists preserve only their heads in the belief that this is easier. It also enables the perfusion process to focus on providing the best possible conditions for the brain as opposed to the whole body. Others believe that it is better to preserve the whole body, for a number of reasons. Indeed, Alcor's policy is to recommend head only preservation on the grounds that a technology capable of reviving an old body will also be able to grow a replacement body form genetic information stored in the cells which make up the head. Alcor's late perfusionist, Dr Jerry Leaf, (who died as a result of smoking), however said that he preferred whole body. His preference was based on his experience as an aeroplane pilot - pilots always think the first 'plane they trained on is the best one to fly.
The cryonics support group The Venturists have organised themselves as a religion for legal reasons. American law grants citizens of the United States the freedom to reject autopsy on grounds of religious belief. Therefore The Venturists have published a card that members can carry. It is worded as follows:
CERTIFICATE OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF
Pursuant to section 274191.43 of the Government Code of the State of California, I hereby execute this certificate of religious belief,
My religious belief compels me to oppose any post mortem procedure, dissection or autopsy which would in any way delay, impede, or prevent the cryonic suspension of my human remains.
Dated Signed
Printed name
Witnessed
Dated Signed
Printed name
Witnessed
Dated Signed
Printed name
Society for Venturism (619) 249-3553
At the moment such freedoms do not exist in the UK. Pathologists have invested large sums of money and a large chunk of their time as young men studying for the profession. They are not going to take lightly any move that may reduce their earning capacity. Nevertheless, unless foul play is suspected in a given situation, it is likely that individuals in the profession will try to do as little damage as possible if the needs of the bereaved family are made known to them.
With the growing popularity of foreign holidays there must be an increasing number of cases of people dying overseas. I know of two cases where the next of kin were put to more expense and trouble than I should have thought would be justified.
In one case the couple had always disagreed about foreign travel as one didn't like flying. Eventually the other one went abroad on their own, and died whilst on holiday. Instead of the funeral directors' profession arranging for the remains to be repatriated, the spouse who hated flying was obliged to fly abroad to make lots of arduous arrangements and fly back with the remains. In the other instance there wasn't any special prejudices against flight, but nevertheless considerable expense and extra work at a time when the bereaved needed it like the proverbial hole in the head.
If there are repatriation services whereby the remains can be delivered home for a funeral at the home town without the bereaved officiating, these people weren't told of them.
If such services don't at present exist, then clearly there would be an opening in the profession to provide them, especially with the growing practise of local authorities wintering old people in Spain to save costs.
Mr Alan Sinclair, founder and principal shareholder of Alcor (UK) Ltd., is seeking additional investors to join him. Part of his industrial unit near Eastbourne was purchased on mortgage, and a change in the law has stopped him from putting the interest payable against profits from his other enterprises. He seeks to raise £50,000 for other investors, and the group has said that shareholders may if they wish regard their investment as forming part of their suspension fund, thus relieving them of the problems and uncertainties of life insurance or other probate free post mortem capital transfers. As far as I understand the investment would be in the form of a bond associated with the property rather than a share in the business of cryonic suspension as such. This form of investment has been used to fund the US facility of Alcor, and in fact shareholders will see a profit when Alcor move to a larger facility. Existing shareholders will receive a repayment of capital when the old building is sold, together with profit on the transaction. Of course, Alcor hope that they will re-invest in the new building.
The first UK suspension nearly took place in March. However it transpired that the family concerned believed that their son would be reanimated within as few as 20 years, and when they learned that it could be hundreds of years, they decided against the procedure. Mr Trygve Bauge was involved as mediator, following the coverage of his service in Funeral Service Journal. The funeral profession were the initial contact point in this case, and it is a useful lesson for the future to make the revival time clear from the onset - it saves wasted time and effort if the realities of the situation are not satisfactory to the client. There are no doubt many such lessons to be learned, and it is hoped that I will be able to bring them to light in this column. Another point arising from this suspension is - don't embalm the deceased! Full instructions should be obtained from a cryonics organisation as soon as possible before any action is taken.
Of course the lack of a 20 year revival timescale is not really a point of issue. If the whole family had opted for cryonic suspension, the son could have been suspended now, and the parents in 30 or 40 years time. Assuming the legal, social and technical difficulties were overcome and the family were revived, they would all end up together again, which presumably is what the parents expected to happen in 20 years time.
Writing in Canadian Cryonics News Douglas Skrecky proposed an alternative process that does not involve freezing. This is called anhydrobiotic biostasis, and the procedure he proposes is as follows: 1. The body temperature of the still living terminally ill patient is reduced. 2. The blood supply is then replaced by sugar saturated blood. 3. Body temperature is again lowered breath stops and the entire body is vitrified as the sugar solidifies. 4. The corpse is gradually air dried to produce a Mummy. 5. The Mummy is placed in an anaerobic or oxygen free environment for long term storage. He also suggests introducing the anti-oxidant diethylhydroxalamine, although he does not mention at what stage or how it is introduced to the body.. Of course this summary is a grossly simplified account of Mr Skrecky's article, which in it's turn is a simplification of scientific literature. The editor of Canadian Cryonics News expresses some reservations with the process, but welcomes the proposal of another alternative to cryonics. Also the proposal involves treated a dying patient in a manner which lawyers would see mileage in calling "murder" - even cryonicists wait until the patient is legally deceased before freezing him. However the same procedure could be used as with some cryonics cases - attach a CPR machine to the dead patient to get blood flow in order to introduce chemicals, cryoprotectants in the cryonics case, and sugars in the anhydrobiotic biostasis case.
Cryonic suspension today is an expensive business, but soon after the first cryonics group formed, The Life Extension Society, it offered to freeze the first person free: "The Life Extension Society now has primitive facilities for emergency short term freezing and storing ... LES offers to freeze, free of charge, the first person desirous and in need of cryogenic suspension." However, despite this generous offer, the Life Extension Society never froze anybody.
In May 1965, Wilma Jean McLaughlin had fallen into oblivion because her husband's plans to suspend her failed. As one report had it, some of her relatives and their minister of religion were against it. The minister said that the operation was untested and the doctors could not assure him that it would succeed. Of course this misses the whole point: cryonics relies on future science for reanimation and therefore cannot be tested. In any case, the patient would not lose anything if the process did not work.
In the same year, Mr Dandridge M. Cole, a scientist and technology forecaster who was actively interested in cryonics, died aged 44, but was not put into suspension because of the lack of any firm arrangements and lack of support by friends and relatives. An elderly woman whose identity was never revealed was put into suspension by the Cryo Care Corporation of Phoenix, Arizona the following year, but was removed and interred conventionally a few months later.
But the journey of the First Man In Time began in January 1977. Dr James H. Bedford had no Cavor to invent cavorite and make a cosy little time-ship. He is not experiencing the adventures on the way as did H.G. Wells' first man in the moon. However when he is revived, he will no doubt read about them with interest. His suspension was still primitive by modern standards, but nevertheless is more recognisable as the modern process than the two previous attempts. The suspension began soon after death, because he had found a cooperating physician and made prior arrangements. He died in a nursing home, where there is a smaller chain of command than in a hospital, therefore fewer people have to be made to cooperate.
Initially Bedford was suspended by the ill fated Cryonic Society of California, which later was to fail with ignominy, but fortunately for him his wife had him removed from them and shipped to Cryo-Care only six days later. This was extremely fortunate, as otherwise he would have perished with the other patients of CSC when it finally failed. Early in 1967 he was transferred to another capsule as the one carrying him was performing badly, requiring too frequent topping up with liquid nitrogen.
Two years later, Bedford's travels continued, to a company called Galiso Inc., and he was transferred again to a newer and more reliable capsule, built by this company. Bedford's chances of survival were under constant assault from relatives, but the fierce loyalty of his son Norman and his wife prevailed to keep him in suspension. His wife was reported not to believe in cryonics herself, but had a fierce determination to carry out her husband's wishes despite vituperative attacks from those around her and little support from those involved with cryonic suspension.
In 1976 Galiso's insurers tried to make profit out of the fact that Bedford was on their premises, and Norman drove his capsule on a trailer to Trans Time Inc. However their escalating charges caused Norman to remove his father from their care in June 1977, and try and maintain the Galiso capsule themselves. However the company supplying the liquid nitrogen discovered what was in the capsule and started exploiting the situation by charging a $60 delivery charge for every fill.
In 1982, Mike Darwin of Alcor became curious as to Bedford's fate, and found the capsule and with a certain amount of difficulty persuaded its custodians to allow Alcor to look after it. Mrs Bedford died in 1987 without suspension, (her remains were annihilated by cremation) and Norman irrevocably transferred to the capsule to Alcor in that year, acting on his mother's instructions. They considered the five years that Alcor has maintained the capsule without extortion or hassle sufficient proof that they could be trusted. Bedford remains with Alcor to this day, although he was transferred from the now failing Galiso capsule to a modern Alcor one in 1991. Mr Darwin wrote that Bedford's body was in perfect condition showing that despite all the adventures it had never been allowed to thaw during its years of suspension.
The journey now continues, and of course Mike Darwin has his own suspension arrangements ready and in place. Some years ago, he changed his name from Ferdowicz to Darwin. Perhaps he should change it to Cavor now. Or perhaps not, in case they find Selenites or Morlocks or some similar (fortunately unlikely) Wellisan monsters when they reach the future...
In the July 1991 issue of Funeral Service Journal an article described how the small funeral director could arrange pre-paid funerals by way of the "Monument" trust. The list of problems facing the client wishing to fund his own funeral without troubling his relatives is very familiar to the aspiring cryonicist. An ordinary mortalist doesn't face one problem that the cryonicist faces.
When the mortalist perishes it doesn't really matter what happens to his remains - burn or rot, the end result is the same. The Immortalist, or cryonicist, however, believes that if he is cremated or buried, he will be annihilated. Whereas if his remains are frozen then he stands a small but finite chance of revival to good health in an indeterminate life in a young body. The cryonicist, therefore, is desperate to ensure that his remains are treated in the way he requires. This desperation is tinged with fears that his relatives and the authorities will conspire to prevent his suspension, and in his eyes therefore kill him when he is totally unable to help himself.
Regardless of whether these beliefs and fears are sound, clearly well conceived cryonics arrangements will bring peace of mind to the individual concerned. Therefore it is in keeping with the funeral director's professional duty to alleviate the problems concerning death to help with any such arrangements being proposed.
The problem, of course, is that the cost of cryonic suspension is well above that of an ordinary funeral. The least expensive of the options is whole body suspension with the Cryonics Institute in Michigan. They charge $1,250 to join with no annual fee, and they charge $28,000 for the actual suspension, to be paid immediately and not through the probate system, with its tendency to introduce costs, delays and possible injustices. In addition, the costs of transport to the USA would be of the order of £5,000. Payment would depend on the terms of the firm involved, but obviously they would prefer to be paid as soon as possible. At the time of writing, I do not know whether if the international removal would be free of VAT if ordered from the USA, but if this is the case, then the amount could be added to the $28,000 and dealt with as described below.
At present many cryonicists use life insurance to fund their suspensions. The Cryonics Institute have a program designed to keep their costs constant despite inflation, but the political forces behind inflation are very strong, and they may not be able to do this forever. In fact, their suspension agreement does have provision to raise this sum. Unfortunately there is no life insurance where the premium and sum assured rise in line with inflation. Policy holders can only add to the sum insured if new life cover is taken out, and as this would be at a higher age, the premium would be proportionately higher. As most people now know, virtually the whole of the first year's premiums are actually given to the professional involved in arranging the insurance. This makes it even more difficult to keep sums insured in line with inflation. To keep a constant value insured, premiums would rise at a disastrously high rate. However, if The Immortalist has the money to hand, then he can set up a US revocable trust to fund his suspension. The Cryonics Institute will provide a model trust document. The advantage of this is that the owner of the trust can manage it himself, and therefore have no trustee's fees to pay! Such trusts are illegal in the UK, but if the stocks or other assets of the trust are located in the USA, such as a New York stockbroker's account, then there is nothing the UK legal profession can do about it. If they wanted to litigate they'd have to travel to the USA, when they would come under US law. The contents of the trust would be subject to UK taxation and should be reported as if they belonged to the owner outright, and will be subject to death taxes. (Currently incorrectly called "Inheritance" Tax: a genuine inheritance tax is payed by the recipient, not the donor's estate, and is based on the recipient's financial position, not the donor's.) However the sum involved for cryonics is well below the limit for death taxes at present, although it could affect larger estates where substantial sums are left for other and taxable purposes.
The effect of the trust on an estate is that the estate not in the trust will have to bear the death taxes associated with the trust. For example, if the trust was worth £25,000 and the remaining estate was worth £200,000 then the remaining estate would have to bear death taxes as if it had been worth £225,000. In cases where cryonics clients haven't got enough funds to start a trust right away, term life insurance for say ten years can be used, and at the same time funds can be built up in a brokerage account so that at the end of the term there will be sufficient for cryonics purposes. In the case of a young person this may be slightly more expensive than whole life for the minimum amount, but much cheaper than insuring for an estimated indexed minimum amount at actuarial death. (Example: client aged 30, actuarial death 75, inflation rate 10%: sum assured would need to be 28,000 x (1+10/100) raised to the power of 45, which is just over two million dollars.) If you could afford such insurance then you could also afford to set up a trust, and the trust would make you much more money unless you perished prematurely.
It should be pointed out that although in the long terms stocks will always rise beyond inflation, this may not be true in the short and medium terms. Therefore a trust should be above the $28,000 minimum level if it is to avoid the situation where the owner's death occurs during a slump in the market. The relationship between the Cryonics Institute and its clients is unusual. In most cases, especially where large sums of money are involved, the parties to a deal are in opposition: the buyer of the goods or services wants the best deal for the smallest price, and the seller wants to get as much money for as little work as possible. However, with cryonics this is not the case. The buyer has no use for the money when it is handed over. Once his remains is in care of the Institute, their interests become identical. The buyer will perish if the institute fails. If the Institute prospers, the buyer has more chance of revival, and of rehabilitation thereon. This being the case, there is no difficulty in that "too much" money appears in the trust after the suspension is performed. Indeed, it would be expected that the bulk of the estate will also pass by will to the Cryonics Institute, or some related organisation, as this will also add to the client's chances of revival.
Mr Francis J. Caruso is a U.S. stockbroker working with a leading stockbroking firm with offices in London and New York. He is familiar with cryonics trusts and would be willing to assist any enquirers. It should be pointed out, however, that Mr Caruso and his firm simply act as financial advisors who can run accounts for trusts provided by and managed by their owners or owners' trustees. They can give no endorsement, encouragement or advice in connection with any other aspects of cryonic suspension. Readers interested in discussing cryonics trusts or indeed general investment in U.S. securities are invited to call him on 071-438-4191.
by Douglas Skrecky
Summum corporation of Salt Lake City, Utah USA is in the mummification business. For a hefty fee of $7700 they will mummify the corpse of the deceased. Unlike cryonics companies no claims about possible future reanimation are used to sell this service. Instead the selling point is to the vanity of individuals who are unwilling to allow their bodies to burn or decompose after they die. It is not impossible that some of these American mummies may one day find a final resting place beside the ancient Egyptian pharoahs in museums of the distant future. If current trends hold up there may soon be more people signed up to be mummified than all those signed up to be frozen by cryonics companies. Is the funeral industry missing out on a substantial amount of business by not offering an alternative to cremation or traditonal interment procedures?
Mummification could involve expensive apparatus such as a refrigerated vaccuum dessicator or ... provided the corpse is first embalmed dessication need only require the use of a container large enough to hold the body and a high capacity dehumidifier. With the output of the dehumidifier blowing directly onto the corpse complete mummification would take about a week. In order to insure high quality preservation higher doses of formaldehyde than is customarily used in embalming would need to be employed, in addition probably to small amounts of glutaraldehyde as well. The best results with formaldehyde alone seem to be obtained by altering the embalming procedures to a two step procedure. For instance by first perfusing with a pH 6.5 formaldehyde solution rapid penetration of tissue is obtained as formaldehyde does not react with proteins significantly at this low PH. Then after switching to a pH 11 formaldehyde perfusion rapid fixation occurs which is quite uniform since the tissue has already been saturated with formaldehyde from the previous step.1
After embalming has been completed it may be worthwhile to perfuse the corpse one last time with a sugar saturated solution before commencing dessication. Strictly speaking even mummification may offer at least some chance however small for future revival. Cryonics companies base their claims of revival on the use of cryoprotectants to minimize freezing damage. Similar claims might conceivably be made for mummification if agents to protect against drying damage were used. It is now known that one of the most effective such agents is sucrose or common table sugar.2
After mummification is completed long-term storage would require a corrosion resistant casket, which would then be packed with a desiccant such as calcium oxide. Although steel and even bronze caskets eventually corrode underground tests have found that type 316L stainless steel remains inert in all fresh water exposures. The only known vulnerability of this mid price stainless alloy in fresh water is by corrosion induced by some types of bacteria. No corrosion would be thus be expected in the arctic permafrost. For local burial sites which are located on high ground well away from the seashore a 316L casket would seem to stand a good chance of remaining intact for at least a few centuries. This is something of a bargain as tests have found that more expensive high molybdenum stainless steel and nickel alloys used for seawater service are LESS resistant than 316L to microbiologically induced corrosion.3 The total costs associated with mummification would appear to be no larger than those incurred with some of the more elaborate traditional interments. While future reanimation can not be guaranteed by any method of preservation mummification can offer a highly credible option for ensuring long-term preservation of human remains.
1. Importance of Fixation in Immunohistochemistry: Use of Formaldehyde Solutions at Variable pH for the Localization of Tyrosine Hydroxylase 844-850 Vol.29. No.7 1981 The Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry
2. Interactions of Sugars With Membranes 367-384 Vol.947 1988 Biochimica et Biophysica Acta
3. Ranking Alloys for Susceptibility to MIC - A Preliminary Report on High-Mo Alloys 55-57 January 1991 Materials Performance
The second of a series of events is seldom as newsworthy as the first, but in the field of the preservation of remains with a view to future reanimation there is much of interest in the world's second permafrost "cryonic" internment (PCI). The relatively high cost of cryonics, together with surcharges and other difficulties for people who have not pre-arranged suspension, makes PCI an obvious choice for those new to cryonics faced with the death of a loved one. Thus it was in July 1991 that a chemist located somewhere in Europe (precise details are scant because the family has asked for no publicity) chilled his deceased grandmother to 20C within a hour of deanimation. It took him five days to get agreement from relatives for a permafrost burial, and she was kept at this temperature for 5 days before embalming with 50% formaldehyde, 10% alcohol, plus other compounds like Ringer's solution. The full formulation was not published in the cryonics press. Perfusion was performed through the femoral artery using an automatic pump for 1½ days, and 50 litres total volume was pumped in. Embalming is now though to be an essential part of the PCI procedure if reanimation is to be possible. See recent issues of Longevity Report (available from Longevity Books for £10 per year UK) for detailed discussion of this. He built the special coffin himself to specifications he believed to be suitable for long term permafrost storage. The total weight was 550kg, which some international shippers of remains thought was excessive.
He then contacted the Cryonics Society of Canada for help in arranging a burial at Resolute Bay, in Northern Canada. They found that there was considerable difficulty in overcoming problems involving the Department of External Affairs, the Government of North West Territories, and the local Council of Resolute Bay. For a non-Canadian to be buried at Resolute Bay there had to be a bylaw added to the Hamlets Act for the Hamlet of Resolute Bay. The bylaw had to be drawn up at Regional Office at Iqualuit, the Indian name by which Frobisher Bay is now known. As with all things bureaucratic, this took considerable time. By mid August they had done nothing, and there was pressure from Europe to get the body buried, from relatives and the funeral director involved that end. Other options were being considered, such as Yellowknife and Alaska.
Mr Benjamin Best, of the Cryonics Society of Canada, contacted a funeral director in Montreal to receive the remains from Europe and hold it in cold storage until a burial site could be found. He chose Montreal because there is a direct flight to Resolute from there. The funeral director chosen was Mr Gary Fetterly, of Kane & Fetterly, Inc. [(514) 481-5301]. Mr Fetterly is an expert in the shipment of remains and Mr Best said he was very helpful. He agreed to hold the remains in cold storage at no additional charge until a burial site had been found.
The Indians of Resolute were concerned that if they allowed one PCI there could be many others, and they would have to reorganise their entire cemetery allocation. The funeral director at Inuvik was contacted, but he wasn't able to help. Two weeks later the council decided that they would pass a bylaw allowing foreigners to be buried there, but would refuse this particular case! They seemed suspicious that the whole thing was a confidence trick. This could be due to their highly collective culture. Their land had been given to them collectively by the Federal Government. (ie given to Indians rather than to individuals.) They have no industry other than a little tourism, and little incentive to create any. They have no profit motive or individual incentive for self improvement, and regard anyone that does provide a service for money as unethical.
A decision was therefore made to ship the remains to Yellowknife, which was done with the help of the American Cryonics Society. (ACS) A grave was dug to a depth of 10 feet, frozen clay being encountered at six feet. A plastic pipe was inserted in the grave extending to the surface. A thermocouple with a long lead wire was sent to the site, and this will be installed and the pipe removed. This will allow monitoring of the temperature in the coffin. ACS investigated possible sites for burial, and consulted geologists at the University of Alaska and obtained many of their publications on the subject of permafrost. However they do point out that permafrost burial in the hope of reanimation by future science is controversial amongst cryonicists. "We simply don't know enough to say whether permafrost burial offers real hope or is simply a waste of money." they say, "We should not, however, make the mistake made by the Federal Drug Administration and deny patients controversial treatment on the basis that the treatment has not been fully tested."
Addresses:
Canadian Cryonics Society PO Box 788 Station A Toronto Ontario Canada M5W 1G3 American Cryonics Society PO Box 761 Cupertino California 95015 USA
by Ben Best, BSc, BBA (Cryonics Society of Canada)
INTRODUCTION
The idea of cryonics, freezing of the dead in anticipation of future reanimation, has been around for quite a few years. Only recently, however, has there been a substantial increase in the number of people seeking to apply this idea in practice. If this trend continues and accelerates, funeral directors may find themselves increasingly called-upon to assist cryonic suspension teams in picking-up the deceased at a hospital, signing necessary forms, and using a funeral home preparation room for blood washout, packing in ice or making arrangements for shipment. Understanding how cryonicists view life and death can assist funeral directors in dealing with these kinds of requests. THE MEANING OF DEATH
From a legal standpoint, the definition of death is fairly straightforward: it is the condition of a person after a physician has signed a death certificate. The scientific definition, however, has undergone some changes in recent years. Historically, clinical death was defined in terms of the absence of heartbeat and absence of breathing. Respirators, pacemakers and other sophisticated life-support apparatus have made former definitions obsolete, however. Death would currently more likely be defined in terms of some degree of cellular degeneration (particularly in the brain), which is deemed irreversible. This definition is not so clear-cut as the old one. In particular, it leaves open the question of reversibility: will certain irreversible changes, with current medicine, be reversible by future medicine?
CAN DEATH BE STOPPED?
This question has been most forcefully posed by MIT scientist K. Eric Drexler's book Engines of Creation1 (discussed in the Technology section of the 20 NOV 89 issue of Time magazine). Drexler has taken the current trend towards micronization to an astonishing conclusion: self-replicating machines on an atomic level. Such machines could assemble, atom-by-atom, materials of extraordinary strength, foods and tiny computers. Nanotechnology (nano = billionth, as in nanometre) also offers the prospect of repairing all cellular damage due to disease and aging.
These conceptions may be difficult even for science fiction buffs to grasp or believe. But if the growth in wealth and technology in the last 200 years can be projected to the next 200 years, such developments are almost inevitable. For many, this is a very big "if", but for others, it is something worth preparing for. If nanotechnology can produce eternal youth by DNA-repair machines, it can probably also repair cellular ice-crystal damage. Thus, people frozen today at liquid nitrogen temperatures and held in storage may someday be restored to life - free of the effects of freezing, disease and aging. This is the fundamental premise of the cryonics movement.
THE CRYONICS MOVEMENT
In 1967, a California cryonics organization called Cryonic Interment placed the first person in suspension who is still in suspension, a professor James Bedford. Robert Nelson, the principle organizer, ultimately froze a total of 10 persons, placed them in storage and received a fair amount of money for this. Because of financial mismanagement, Nelson could not maintain his corpses in a frozen state, and allowed them to thaw (hidden in an underground crypt which he would not allow others to inspect). He maintained a fraudulent facade until he was exposed and sued.2 Since then, cryonicists have had to struggle against the tarnished image Nelson left. Recently, a Federation of Cryonics Societies has been created to establish professional standards.
Currently, about 25 people are suspended in liquid nitrogen by three American cryonics organizations: Alcor, Trans Time and the Cryonics Institute. Most of the people involved in these organizations are keenly idealistic and hopeful of creating immortality for themselves and their loved-ones. Alcor in particular is well-financed, and maintains a modern facility open for inspection by interested persons.
Needless to say, governmental bureaucracies and established legal procedures for dealing with the dead have not made life or death easy for cryonicists. Alcor, especially, has had to conduct legal battles with hospitals, the California Department of Health Services and the Riverside County Coroner's Office, among others. So far, it has not yet lost a legal contest, though it has been forced to compromise.
Because of the legal complications involved in freezing people whose families have sought cryonics during a state of emotional upset, cryonics organizations maintain a policy of only suspending members who have made arrangements prior to death.3 The involvement of funeral directors in cryonics could allow for non-member suspensions.
CRYONICISTS AND FUNERAL DIRECTORS
Cryonicists are not seeking to be in competition with funeral directors or cemeteries. On the contrary, cryonicists are eager for co-operation and eventual co-optation into the Establishment. Funeral directors could be of great assistance in taking possession of corpses from hospitals and maintaining them at low temperature, in preparation for liquid nitrogen suspension. Cemeteries could one day offer a menu of services that include cremation, conventional burial, and cryonic suspension -- based on individual preferences of the deceased.
Currently, suspension of a whole body costs4 up to US$100,000. Careful perfusion with cryoprotectants such as glycerol (to minimize ice crystal damage) accounts for much of the cost. Liquid nitrogen boil-off amounts to US$700 to US$1,000 per year. By freezing just the head (in the belief that cloning the rest of the body should not be difficult), suspension costs are reduced to US$35,000. These costs are most frequently financed by life insurance policies.
Others are looking for more low-cost options. Substances such as glutaraldehyde, which are of use in the chemical fixation of biological tissue specimens, may be the key to preserving human remains at above-freezing temperatures in anticipation of the Age of Nanotechnology. Embalming could take on a new role.
FUTURE PROSPECTS
There should be plenty of time to prepare for these changes. In December 1988, Alcor had 111 members who had made arrangements to be suspended upon death. A year later, there were 145 such members5. At this rate of growth, it would be 2010 AD before 40,000 people had made Alcor arrangements. But as publicity increases, legal problems are solved and membership procedures become simplified, growth rates should accelerate. The number of persons in Canada who are presently signed-up to be frozen upon death is less than ten. The Cryonics Society of Canada is a small educational organization with no suspension capabilities. In the Spring of 1988 we enlisted the support of the funeral director in Inuvik, NWT, for the permafrost burial of the father of a New Jersey man. We are still studying the permafrost burial option very carefully. We have also been eagerly awaiting the new Funeral Services Act provisions, which allow for shipping a non-embalmed (frozen) body out of the Province of Ontario.
Persons interested in further reading about cryonics should consult Living Longer, Growing Younger1 by Paul Segall, PhD, or the introductory booklet Threshold to Tomorrow (available for US$5.00 from Alcor; 12327 Doherty Street; Riverside, Calif. 92503 USA). The Cryonics Society of Canada (Box 788 Station A; Toronto, Ontario M5W 1G3 Canada) publishes Canadian Cryonics News quarterly with a subscription fee of $10/year. Also, the author of this article is available for questions: Ben Best (416) 369-4524 (days). About the Author
Ben Best,BSc.,BBA, has degrees in physics, computing science and finance. He is a Director of the Cryonics Society of Canada and works as a computer programmer in the investment industry.
Additional Notes by John de Rivaz (Longevity Books)
This article was first published in Canadian Funeral Director February 1990, and reprinted by permission of the author.
1. Available from Longevity Books - see advertisement. 2. The legal punishment was for not placing people in cryonic suspension after contracting so to do. Many articles written about this imply that Mr Nelson was punished for suspending people. 3. Since this article was written, all the cryonics societies have revoked this policy. However higher charges are levied on those who were not signed up before death. See Funeral Service Journal July 1989, page 55, June 1990, page 45 and December 1990 page 52. 4. These costs are for Alcor, now raised further. The Cryonics Institute still charges $28,000. (24443, Roanoke, Oak Park, Michigan 48237, USA.) See Funeral Service Journal November 1990 page 21. 5. As of November 1991 Alcor has 19 members in suspension, with 267 signed up for suspension, and 451 Associate Members, including 186 going through the legal process of signing up for suspension.
Before cryonic suspension became quite as well known as it is today, there have been many attempts by wealthy and individualistic people to arrange their own suspensions with purpose made organisations. A persistent but false rumour exists that Walt Disney did this, and until the fall of Communism it was incorrectly believed by many that Russian leaders were preserved in this manner.
In a recent issue of The Immortalist, the journal of The Immortalist Society, it was suggested, in the section authored and edited by the American Cryonics Society, that the extreme individualism of the concept of cryonics made it a natural sequitur that many people interested would want to go it alone. However they cautioned that many such attempts in the past have met with failure, and not surprisingly they urge that people join one of the existing organisations. Of course there are a number of satellite organisations surrounding the cryonics groups themselves. The most successful of these is probably the Venturists. It started out as an attempt at a cryonics religion, but they seemed to have dropped that idea now (except in a legal sense) and act more as a care and advice centre. Of course my own Longevity Books and its associated newsletter Longevity Report is another example of a satellite organisation.
One new idea that did come up was that of a cryonics franchise. The concept of franchising has seen a substantial growth in the past years. For example funeral director United Dignity Inc, of Tennessee is a US franchise network that offers the public a dignified but inexpensive funeral service.
Franchising is often used in industries where the product or service is relatively new, fulfils a definite need, is in need of growth capital, and whose present potential is limited geographically. It has been described as the most important innovation since the idea of the corporation being distinct from the individual, first introduced in the Roman Empire. The concept of the corporation disappeared for some while after the fall of the Roman Empire. It re-appeared after the middle ages when the concept of unlimited liability for business partners made it increasing difficult to raise capital for industries emerging during the industrial revolution.
To start with the cryonics franchiser would provide considerable back up to its young satellites, but once the service was underway the franchise would ensure a uniformity of quality and standards that the public could learn to trust. Expertise could be shared between the franchisees, and the existence of different storage facilities around the world would have many advantages for the movement.
If a government, such as that of British Columbia in Canada, decided that it was not appropriate for its citizens to have the freedom to choose this treatment upon their death, any patients already in suspension in such areas could be removed to free countries. At the present time, because all storage facilities exist within the United States, if there was a federal law enacted against cryonics, then the organisations would have to set up facilities overseas in a very short time, coupled with the difficulties of getting their patients out of the country. If facilities exist overseas, then at least they can concentrate their time on the move.
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A good riposte
In a recent chat show, Mr Mike Darwin of Alcor was asked why people should tie up their resources upon death in preserving their own bodies in the hope of future revival when these resources would be much better spent aiding the poorer people of the world.
Mr Darwin replied that if people in the rich countries really felt a desire to help the poorer nations, then they have enough money now to do this: simply by giving up holidays, luxury cars, eating out, drinking and smoking etc. He felt it entirely inappropriate that they should carry on with luxuries yet require him to surrender his life to aid the poor. This argument meet with jeers and hisses from the audience, but there was no logical counter argument presented. [Of course there is no logical counter argument: the jeers and hisses are similar to the way the loser of a fight accuses the winner of using "cowardly methods".]
by Chrissie Loveday
The deep-freezing of a fertilised human egg, and thawing it for implantation? Futuristic? For science fiction? No. It is fact. So why not freeze larger objects and restore them at some time in the future? The concept of cryonic suspension was first introduced to me recently. My initial reaction was to smile and remember Star Trek. I was provided with some information which included photographs of capsules with some strange looking dark shapes inside that may or may not have been human. I felt disturbed and perhaps even slightly sickened by the whole idea. It was rather like a horror movie. I dismissed the article and thought the sender was obviously some nutty crank. A couple of days later, I found the pictures again ... under the bed. With a second glance, as I picked it up, I could see that the human inside his time capsule did not look threatening at all. It actually looked a darned sight better than most interred bodies look even days after burial, if the late-night movies are to be believed.
"I'm supposed to have an open mind," I reminded myself. I requested more information and was presented with a book1 to read. I understood that this book was some years old but nevertheless, something of a bible to cryonicists. I thought again about the recent strides in freezing embryos and sperm and suddenly it didn't sound quite so cranky. I requested still more information. More articles followed, some of which raised many of the points I had been struggling with. Suppose after all that effort and expense, the body was reanimated and there was cell damage to the brain?2 Surely there are enough damaged people around in the world, without some weirdo adding to it. Of course there are no real answers to this type of question. It hasn't been done yet, because science hasn't yet made this type of progress.3
I began to think long and hard about the prospect. My next series of reactions was the basically maternal one. How on earth would I feel if I had been revived 50 years after my sons had expired?4 They are currently young men in the prime of life and the thought of them being in the past seemed somewhat abhorrent to me. This led on to a new train of thoughts. Whatever changes have taken place in the last fifty years will surely be made to look insignificant by the next batch. It would be like landing on an alien planet. I perhaps reached a turning point, when I read yet another article, telling the story of Arlene Fried. The loving care and attention that was put into her preservation made the whole idea so much more humane and acceptable. The professional approach made by her medical specialists seemed to be continuing treatment even after the cause had become apparently hopeless. Where am I now in my thought process? I still have many doubts about the possible success of the concept, but can I afford to dismiss it and possibly miss out on a second chance of living?
(reprinted from Longevity Report April 1992)
Notes by John de Rivaz, (Longevity Books).
1. The book concerned was one of the old copies of Prospect of Immortality which we sell for £3 post paid.
2. Of course nothing in the world is perfectly safe, but it is a reasonable supposition that people will not be revived unless their brains can function normally. There would indeed be no point in adding weirdos to the world. 3. The whole point of cryonics is that although present science can't revive people, it doesn't need to, because it is future science that we rely on. 4. Once one person signs up for suspension, there is nothing to stop others in the same family following the example.
Previous articles in Funeral Service Journal have indicated that the profession of pathologist is distinctly hostile to cryonic suspension. However this viewpoint must change with a recent suspension performed by the American Cryonics Society.
Susan White, 73, is the mother of Jerry White, of the American Cryonics Society. In December 1991 she learned that she was gravely ill with lung cancer, but had no plans for suspension and intended to be buried. There was no life insurance or sum of money available for whole body or even neurosuspension. Dr White consulted with the president and directors of the American Cryonics Society and agreed on a project to suspend just his mother's brain. His sister, as next of kin, agreed to the project but by that time his mother was to ill for further consultation. She had arranged to perish at home, and was under direct medical supervision with live-in nursing care.
Jim Yount and Jerry White visited the attending mortuary, who agreed to provide any needed facilities for perfusion and removal of the brain, assuming that the appropriate medical and legal requirements were met. But they were not able to see a pathologist when they first visited the mortuary's recommended pathology clinic. However an assistant from there visited them later that day and agreed to help as needed.
When Mrs White had been declared dead, Dr White filled a pillowcase with ice cubes he had been preparing during the day, arranged it around her head and applied CPR until the mortuary personnel arrived. After Mrs White was removed to the mortuary, the embalmer cannulated her jugular and carotid, and perfused the head using Ringer's solution and heparin, with a standard embalming machine. She was then placed in the cold room at 32-35oF. When Jim Yount arrived from ACS, he perfused her with 12 litres of Ringer's and then cryoprotected with five two litre portions of BioTime perfusate, in increasing concentrations.
By 8.40 the following morning, they had enlisted the aid of the local pathologist. Dr White signed forms holding the mortuary harmless and authorising the pathologist to proceed. He incised and separated Mrs White's scalp to expose her skull, from which he detached a segment shaped portion. He then removed her brain which seemed to be in good condition.
It was placed in a plastic dish filled with cryoprotectant which was then topped off with cryoprotectant and covered with a lid. This was then placed in a larger vessel, nestling in crushed ice. This was then removed to the cryonics facility, where it was be cooled to liquid nitrogen temperature over a period of about six weeks.
Suspension of just the brain is a procedure that will find more favour with the medical authorities than freezing bodies or just heads. They are more familiar with freezing organs. Also, it leaves a perfectly sound looking body for conventional funeral practices if that is what some members of the deceased's family require.
Of course the arguments for revival of the brain in a new body are the same as those for the revival of a person who has just had their head preserved. A new body could in theory be grown without a brain using the data that is stored in every cell of the original. Of course present day science can't do it, but there is nothing to say that future science won't have the ability.
The procedures used by cryonicists are many and varied. Only time will tell what will become the norm.
By Douglas Skrecky
David Hanson, the funeral director for Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada has been swamped with inquiries about permafrost burial. Most of these calls come not from cryonicists but instead from relatives of the deceased who wish to preserve the body of their loved ones in glass capsules for viewing. Pending the resolution of Indian land claims David plans on expanding his business in this area by building subterranean viewing areas deep in the permafrost.1 There appears to be no reason why similar facilities would not be profitable in more hospitable latitudes. By substituting preservation by desiccation instead of freezing the requirement for permafrost can be eliminated. Although a vacuum is currently used for freeze-drying small pets the much more costly apparatus needed for human scale vacuum desiccation would not be economically feasible as it would compete with much less expensive air-drying techniques. An example of such a technique would be to pump all cardiovascular fluids out of the body with air pressurized sufficiently to prevent the arteries and veins from collapsing after they have been evacuated. After the body is frozen dry air could be circulated continuously through the cardiovascular system till the all of the ice in the tissues is sublimated. Since the surface area of this system is over 300 times that of the external body surface area the time required to complete such "internal" desiccation would be measured in hours, not days or weeks as with "conventional" freeze-drying techniques. The most economical method for dehumidifying cold air involves blowing the air over a bed of renewable desiccants such as activated alumina or silica gel.2 In order to maintain as lifelike an appearance as possible the body should be perfused with antibrowning agents such as sucrose, citric acid and vitamin C before freezing. Desiccation appears to be the only preservation technique capable of halting tissue deterioration indefinitely. Even after 120 years of storage sugar stabilized rotifers and tardigrades were still capable of being revived after being moistened.3 For reanimation of preserved corpses to be possible only a limited amount of tissue damage can be allowed to occur postmortem. Citric acid prevents autolysis due to calcium activated neutral proteases by binding with calcium ions. Transplant organs seem to maintain a degree of viability for several days when sugar based flushing solutions are used. However the best flushing solutions incorporate a higher molecular weight osmoticum which does not penetrate cells. This is believed to prevent the rupture of cellular lysosomes which then can liberate the non-calcium dependant enzymes which cause tissue necrosis. An inexpensive but state of the art solution has been developed which incorporates citrated salts, hydrolysed starch and a little gelatin.4 To protect against desiccation induced damage sucrose would need to be added to this solution to replace some of the hydrolysed starch. To further minimize tissue damage freezing should be avoided as the growth of intracellular ice crystals usually is sufficiently damaging to be fatal to most cells. If tissue is not frozen prior to desiccation then some tissue shrinkage will occur. There appears to be a trade off between good appearance and cellular viability. What kind of metal casket would be required to protect the desiccated body of the departed cryonicist on its long journey to the distant future? Fortunately the expense of using titanium can be avoided. With recent advances in metallurgy inexpensive but highly corrosion resistant second generation nitrogen alloyed duplex stainless steels such as Ferralium 255 have been developed which remain inert even in seawater.5
1 Canadian Cryonics News 22 Vol.15 1991
2 Selecting Desiccants for Air Dryers 32-35 Sept 1991 Power
3 Death-Defying Dehydration 107-110 Vol.133 1988 Science
4 Preservation of Rabbit Kidneys Using a Solution Containing Hydrolysed Starch 799-804 Vol.52 No.1 1991 Transplantation
5 Duplex Alloy 255 in Marine Applications 63-67 October 1988 Materials Performance
I have recently had correspondence with a gentleman in Bedfordshire who is trying to arrange cryonic suspension for himself and his family. He says that he is having difficulty in finding a funeral director willing to make arrangements that will meet the technical requirements of the chosen cryonics organisation. The difficulty seems to be with the requirements of British airlines with respect to shipping remains to the United States. He is therefore keen to contact any funeral director who has contacts with foreign airlines and who is willing to enter into discussions about cryonic suspension. Intercontinental shipments of remains have been made for cryonics purposes, so the problem is not an insuperable one.
If any reader of Funeral Service Journal is interested, would they please contact me through Longevity Books (see advert near cryonics article for address) initially. It does seem that once expertise is gained in this new field such specialisation could prove worthwhile in the long term.
[1997: This lead to Paul Michaels and family joining the Cryonics Institute. Mr Michaels was later appointed the UK director of CI, and he now regularly flies to Michigan for meetings.]
Many people wonder what is the point in undergoing an expensive procedure involving a lot of patient suffering to achieve a few more years of life of impaired quality. Yet such procedures form the heart of medical treatment for the elderly or severely injured, whether through disease or accident. It is in this atmosphere that on hearing about cryonic suspension they jump to the conclusion that the clients will be revived as old people, only to be kept alive as old people, with all their aches and pains, for a few years only to die again. Or worse - they may be kept alive with their aches and pains for ever.
Last time I mentioned the case involving the couple who jumped to the conclusion that suspended people could be revived in 20 years time. This time, the "jump" goes the other way. I was talking to someone about life extension and cryonics, and he was keen on life extension, and bought some books on vitamins and diet. He seemed interested in cryonics, and despite my cautions about the legal problems seemed to think that it was a viable proposition, although he said it was not for him.
However, later on in the conversation the topic went back to cryonics, and I happened to mention that people would be revived at the peak of health, probably at an apparent age of about 25 years. At this his interest increased considerably, and he bought a copy of Prospect of Immortality and said that he was definitely interested in learning more.
This just goes to show how people can jump to totally false conclusions, and it is necessary to state the obvious, especially with something as alien as cryonics. It sometimes helps to ask what their concepts and ideas are before going too far. In the case of grieving relatives clutching at straws asking about cryonics for the first time, if one can find out what they think it is, it is possible to judge whether the reality is anywhere near what they want.
Recent report in Canadian Cryonics News and Cryonics magazines suggest that the Canadian province of British Columbia is the first legislature in the world to specifically deny its citizens the freedom to chose cryonic suspension for themselves or for a loved one. The Ministry of Labour and Consumer Services was unwilling to give the name of the individual responsible for the legislation to a report from Canadian Cryonics News, (CCN) but the reporter was able to interview a couple of officials on the matter. It appears that the legislation is motivated by both doubts about the efficacy of cryonics from a practical point of view, and more strongly about doubts as to whether society should allow citizens to live beyond a "reasonable" lifespan, supported by technology. Mr David Oliver, a senior research officer, said that there could be no possible harm in a cryonics contract provided that it was spelt out that it is future science that is to perform the revivals, and that such revivals are impossible under present knowledge. Nevertheless he stood by the legislation.
He said that there is no reason why British Columbians shouldn't contract to have their remains removed to California (for example) and be suspended there. However the CCN reporter pointed out that the act even forbade a funeral director packing remains in ice and despatching them to California in exchange for monetary compensation. Mr Oliver replied that interpretation of the Act is up to the Registrar of Cemeteries.
It was not possible for CCN to determine the original author of the legislation, but they theorised that it was some "lowly bureaucrat managing to foist his views on three million people." They stressed the importance of minority groups such as cryonicists keeping a watch on legislation so that they can catch such laws before they pass into the statute books. As an example, they cited the problems with Chiropractic services in the United States. It took seven years of letter writing to the authorities, swamping them with mail from Chiropractors and their supporter, before the legislation was removed.
by Chrissie Loveday (With foreword by John de Rivaz)
The debate on whether people should be allowed to die peacefully or should be given every last bit of surgical treatment to enable them hang on to every femtosecond of life is likely to be well known by all Funeral Directors. Funeral Directors will have faced many instances of people mutilated by futile surgery passing into their hand for the Last Rites.
Longevity Books sell a hardbacked book If We Could Keep a Severed Head Alive for £10. (post free - see advertisement for address.) The purpose of this book is to warn people where surgery and medicine as practised by the establishment is leading - to more and more horrific operations just to provide a few short weeks of extra life, of very low quality. Many people confuse the cryonics movement with this approach. Cryonics aims to place and keep the patient in an unconscious state until a full quality life is available. Here, in an article reprinted from Longevity Report, Chrissie Loveday tells of her own experiences with a terminal patient subjected to unwelcome medical attention by the authorities at the end of her life.
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She was, indeed, a brave lady. I knew her for over thirty years and would never have believed I could wish she would die. I did. I saw her health deteriorate over a period of years, until the time came when I really wished she could be relieved of her suffering.
When I first met her, Elaine was a lively, energetic lady, into horses, badminton, you name it. Her energy made me feel breathless at times and I found it difficult to keep up with this lady, thirty years my senior. She developed problems with circulation, later diagnosed as being caused by smoking. The final consequence was the amputation of her right leg. I found it hard to keep cheerful and to make the right encouraging noises, but somehow she came through and at the age of seventy -five, learned to walk again, using sticks and an artificial limb. I shall never forget the moment in that hospital, when she walked across the gym and the physiotherapist and doctor agreed that she should be fitted with her leg. I know I wept inside and probably outside became a little damp too. She sold her cottage and bought a "sheltered" apartment, where she was able to look after herself, with minimum help. Endless trips to hospitals and physiotherapy came between spells of positive achievement, when she managed to accomplish much that we had all thought may be out of her reach. Some things were always difficult and she suffered great pain, especially in the missing limb, a very common feature with amputees.
Following her eightieth birthday, Elaine became impatient with the available lack of relief from pain and she began seeking further help from anyone who offered the least encouragement. She had private consultations with several doctors and other practitioners of alternative medicine. Finally she was admitted to hospital, insisting that someone must do something. I truly believe she was reaching the end of her tether and was no longer able to maintain her independence. An arterial bypass was carried out in her remaining leg. It failed and further attempts were made to repair this. The effects of pain and drugs made her mind very confused and she became a very different lady, to the one I knew so well. A second amputation became inevitable. She was more rational by this time and talked of how she would cope when she came home. She was making plans about residential nurses and still hoped to live in her flat. The primary health care team were very supportive and she had the best of attention. There was even talk of her leaving the hospital and I seriously considered what could happen if she did. One day when I visited, a doctor was giving her treatment, which was obviously painful but, she insisted, vital. Elaine's voice became strong as she said,
"What would happen if I refused this? Would I die?"
The doctor looked embarrassed and did not reply. Instead, she continued to insert the drip. Elaine asked me if I could understand how she felt. Of course I did and said so. A couple of days later, I received a call to get to the hospital as soon as possible as she had deteriorated dramatically. I drove there as fast as possible and to my horror found that she had been subjected to further surgery ... the remaining stump had been removed. The ward sister told me that she had collapsed under the anaesthetic and been revived twice. They had finally performed a tracheotomy and she was breathing through the tube left there. She also had on an oxygen mask, which was causing great distress. Pause and think. Here is a lady who has said she does not want more treatment. She specifically said that she did want to be revived if she were to die during the operation ... her fifth in three weeks, at the age of eighty one. The ward sister was, herself, devastated at the treatment. I spent the night talking to Elaine. She had regained consciousness and was quite lucid. She could not understand why her neck was so sore. She kept trying to pull off the oxygen mask and at last the sister agreed that it was doing no good and that she should be allowed to be as comfortable as possible.
I returned the next night and had a comfortable chat with Elaine. She calmly told me that she had ordered all drips removed, except for one providing heavy pain killers and said she wanted no more food. She would, however, like a last whisky and dry ginger with me. I never felt a moment's sorrow at this point and I agreed that she had made the right decision. She seemed comforted that I agreed with her and did not try to chivvy her. I gained permission from sister for the drinks. She felt that Elaine's last hours should be spent as she wanted. At last, she was a person with rights, not a patient who must be treated, regardless of the cost.
The questions remain with me. Why did so much extra pain have to be inflicted on someone who was obviously not going to recover? Why, oh why was she revived when she specifically asked not be? Why did she have to undergo a tracheotomy, to continue for just a few more days? Why do hospitals continue to spend vast resources on patients who finally reach a point beyond help? I have only praise for those directly involved with her daily care. The surgeons would not even listen to them. Is this the correct interpretation of the Hippocratic oath?
The Cryonics Institute is the oldest cryonics organisation. It was founded by Robert Ettinger in 1976 together with a group of long-time cryonicists who felt the need of an organisation to provide reliable cryonic suspension services at reasonable cost. Volunteer labour and growing self-sufficiency are used to keep costs down, and reliability is maximised by conservative fiscal policies and by encouraging people to join before death. However the Cryonics Institute will suspend people who are not members, but only after careful consideration of the case and for a surcharge of $7,000. The cost of joining is $1,250, and the sum required for the suspension is $28,000. ($35,000 for non-members.) The Cryonics Institute owns its properties free and clear of any debt, and has a policy of never getting into debt.
When applying for suspension, clients are asked to sign a contract which lawyers and similar people may find disturbing, but it is written with the security of the Cryonics Institute in mind. Translated into common sense language it simply says that the Cryonics Institute will use its best efforts to place the client in suspension and keep him in that condition and rejuvenate then revive him when it is possible to do so. In fact the Institute has excused itself from any legal action should its best efforts fail. This has disturbed some people, but the Cryonics Institute point out that whatever is said in a contract in reality it is impossible for anyone to do more than their best efforts. If Institute money was to be spent on lawsuits every time anything goes wrong, soon all the clients would be thawed and buried because the Institute's funds would have been redistributed to members of the legal profession. So although the contract appears to give the client little redress should anything go wrong, as far as the clients taken as a group it is the best deal they could be offered.
Of course clients then have to decide for themselves whether the Cryonics Institute's best efforts are good enough. They need to look at the Cryonics Institute's history, charter, bye-laws, policies, assets and liabilities. The Cryonics Institute believe that most prospective members will find these encouraging.
Longevity Books have had the Cryonics Institute's 20 page booklet A Few Minutes Now Could Save Your Life Tomorrow reprinted and will send copies to funeral directors on request. They could be left in waiting rooms with other leaflets for clients to read, and/or held in readiness for enquiries. Discussions are taking place with remains removal firms to enable the Cryonics Institute to offer to clients a complete service including transportation. The membership fee is a one-time payment of $1,250 (£660) or $1,875 for a couple. (£990), and the suspension cost is as previously stated $28,000 (£14,750) per person. On top of this must be added the transportation costs, and these will rise each year with inflation. It may be possible to fix these with a funeral prepayment plan, or alternatively an overpayment can be made to the Cryonics Institute and they will settle the bill. There may be VAT advantages in doing it the second way.
If clients have funds available, the best and most flexible way to fund their suspension is with a trust containing dollar denominated equities (shares in incorporated companies) naming the Cryonics Institute the beneficiary. As equity values rise long term, there is every likelihood that the value of the trust will rise sufficiently to keep up with rises in transportation costs. As there is no insurance element involved, the only fees payable are those to the stockbroker holding the account. But as equities can go down as well as up, there should be sufficient extra funds in the account to allow for the possibility that the market could be low when the funds are required.
If such funds are not available, then clients can achieve their objectives by taking out whole life insurance policies. The cost expressed as a monthly payment is no more than that spent by many people on things such as eating out, smoking, drinking, holidays etc. However in the long terms costs are higher because the insurable risk must be paid for and there are an additional set of professional fees included in the policy costs. Although the Cryonics Institute does not plan to increase its price, its agreement does allow it the possibility, and as stated earlier the transportation costs will rise with inflation. The only way to protect against this is to take out more insurance at the start than is strictly needed. This is because when insurance policies are upgraded the additional premiums are related to the age of the client at the time of upgrade rather than when the policy was started.
A further alternative exists, which is particularly suitable for older people who have funds available. That is to pre-pay the Cryonics Institute. They do, of course, lose any further growth in the money that could be obtained by equity investment, but if they are old this may not be that much anyway. But they also avoid the risk of a fall in the market and also a rise in the fee. For free copies of A Few Minutes Now Could Save Your Life Tomorrow, please write to Longevity Books, West Towan House, Porthtowan, Truro, Cornwall TR4 8AX, stating how many you require. Please note that if you have had photocopied versions before it is worthwhile to write again and ask for these printed ones instead - they are of much better presentation.
To many people, especially those who haven't given the subject of cryonic suspension very serious thought, cryonicists are fools who have been duped of large sums of money as a result of their beliefs. Therefore there are many people who see them as fair game as a further source of easy income. In order to prevent this, the cryonics organisations still prefer people to sign up for cryonic suspension before they are dead, and indeed whilst they are still in good health and under no pressure. The purpose of signing up, is not just the suspension contract itself, but the peripheral documents that make it more difficult for other people seeking money to overturn the suspension arrangements.
A case in point is the Last Will and Testament. Theoretically no Will is necessary for someone to have cryonic suspension, because all the financial aspects are dealt with separately, as previously discussed in this column. However, people who are introduced to cryonics later in life often have Wills in existence, and may forget about them and not make their wishes clear. An example of this is known as the Pilgeram Case. Cynthia Anne Pilgeram, a 60 year old woman who died of cancer, was suspended by Alcor in May, 1990. She and her husband, who had been a scientific consultant for cryonics organisations in the 1960s, were in the signup process, but had not completed the large amount of paperwork required by Alcor.
After her suspension, her sister, Sharon Fields, and her lawyer have found a photocopy of an early will made by Mrs Pilgeram in which she said she wanted a Christian Burial. Ms Fields was described by Venturist Monthly News as "a rabid opponent of cryonics", and pressured Ms Pilgeram to include the "Christian Burial" clause in her will.
Normally in American law photocopies of wills are not valid, and wills are regarded as revoked if the original cannot be found. In addition, Mrs Pilgeram had executed other documents that overturned portions of her will. However Ms Fields' lawyer managed to get a court to agree to probate the photocopied will and order that Mrs Pilgeram be removed form suspension to rot in a grave. Mr Pilgeram is devastated by the "prospect of his wife's being horribly and needlessly sacrificed" as Venturist Monthly News put it, and has appealed the decision to "kill" his wife. The word "kill" only becomes accurate when the first people are revived from suspension, before then it is conjecture. The best way of looking at it is if an ambulance with a seriously injured person on the point of death is prevented from getting to hospital and the person allowed to die. Did they die because of the interference, or was death inevitable, ie from the injury? The difficulty arises because in order to be legal cryonic suspension has to be performed after death as defined by law. Cryonicists say that death means "irrecoverable by medical science". It is a known fact that as science advances previously hopeless cases can be recovered to an active independent life, therefore they suggest that there is a high probability that future science will be able to restore those they freeze, repairing both the freezing damage and whatever killed them.
The court of appeal will also have to discuss matters such as whether Mrs Pilgeram's husband destroyed her Will not Mrs Pilgeram herself. Did her husband apply undue pressure to persuade her to have cryonics? Dr Mike Perry, of the Society for Venturism, said that there was "reasonable doubt" Mrs Pilgeram wanted her body disposed of in a way that would preclude any chance of eventual reanimation. However this action is a civil one, not a criminal one. Therefore under American law the decision is based on "preponderance of evidence" not "absence of reasonable doubt".
According to the Venturists, typical attorney fees in America are a retainer of $7,500, plus $250 per hour. Attorneys must love cases like this.
by Chrissie Loveday
Does everyone ask this question? I said some months ago that my initial thoughts were those of revulsion.1 I read more and thought a lot more and decided that it wasn't all some Sci-Fi exercise for the fans. My thinking was along the lines of "what is there to lose?" Can I afford to reject any opportunity? Strange really, as there was a time, not so long ago, that I didn't really care whether I had any more life or not. I've got over that temporary blip and daily wonder how I shall ever manage to get everything done that I want to do.
My next train of thought leads me to ask the question, am I worth preserving? I trust that my nearest and dearest would say YES ... without hesitation2 ... but I have to consider whether I think it is all worthwhile, what would I do with my time. I have spent many years in education. I am quite disillusioned with mainstream teaching. Trying to force the unwilling to reach the unattainable was my final definition. All those years of training and experience, down the drain ... wasted. I seem to have heard the same thing said by a number of ex-teachers and Radio and Television programmes echo the thoughts. This is but one instance of changes in professions.
"Finished at forty", is often heard these days. The youngsters in the office can't wait for the "oldsters" to make mistakes and earn their gratitude by leaving. Make room for the modern innovations ... let's get the new ideas working. So, are there not enough semi-redundant people around? Why should we consider cryonic suspension to save a whole new collection of "oldies" to one day, prevent the new modern progress? Could it be that old skills could one day be new skills? Perhaps reading will be phased out in the way that mental arithmetic gave way to calculators. Just imagine the thrill, some time in the future, after re-animation, of being the only person on Earth able read and interpret the collection of printed material held in museums!
I like to think that I am open-minded. I want to hear what the new ideas are. I don't want to follow them all, in the same way that I don't want to wear all the new fashions. But I don't want to stay with the laundering and labours involved in the old ways. I want to incorporate new ideas and retain the old ideas that work ... remain open-minded. Modern curriculum in school encourages students to think for themselves, in a guided way, of course. I'm still old-fashioned enough to believe that you have to know real facts before you can begin to think for yourself ... to think original thought ... but I remain open-minded about that.
There are an awful lot of new lives being born. We have an over-crowded planet and something has to be done to limit this growth. There seems to be an awful lot of wastage taking place at this particular time. There are still many countries where new life is great numbers ensures at least some chance of prolonging the parent's lives. Will the human race always procreate in this way? Brave New World made some alternative suggestions and somehow I can't help feeling that recent "advances" are heading that way. If we live longer, will we want as many children in the future? I must admit, I couldn't have managed without any of my three, but will it be that way for everyone in the future? One of my three does not consider the world a suitable place for any more children to be born and has said he doesn't want to be a father. He may change, admittedly, but this could become more common-place. We used to think of our "allotted span" ... three score years and ten wasn't it? That needs updating, surely? I know lots of folk over that ... it surely shouldn't be limited. None of the people I know consider they are living on borrowed time. "Old-age is intolerable, until you think of the alternative" - said the always quotable Oscar Wilde, and "Youth is seldom appreciated by the young" gives the same sort of idea. Perhaps cryonic suspension could solve both problems. Whether anyone else thinks I'm worth preserving becomes irrelevant, if I want to accept the concept, it's my own decision.
1 A Mother's Initial Thoughts on Cryonics Chrissie Loveday, Funeral Service Journal April 1992 page 31
Note by John de Rivaz (Longevity Books)
2 Many cryonics case histories show that nearest and dearest often say "no" - they'd rather have the funds that would have been spent on suspension for themselves.
Everyone must know by now that cryonic suspension is an American idea conceived during the last days of World War II and first implemented in the 1960s. However an article in New Scientist (29 August) has revealed that Americans were burying people with at least a desire to preserve the remains indefinitely, as long ago as the 1680s.
In 1989 a ground penetrating radar discovered three lead coffins beneath the ruins of a colonial church in Maryland. Lead coffins were extremely rare in colonial America, owing to their high cost. Only two others have been discovered, and they were opened in the 1700s. One of these two was hermetically sealed, and the body was found to be perfectly preserved when it was opened. No doubt the remains soon disintegrated upon exposure to the air. The coffins found in 1989 should be hermetically sealed, and if they are, according to New Scientist1 (29 August 1992) the bodies will be perfectly preserved. A project has received funding of half a million dollars to investigate these coffins. However the people inside and their environment is to be disturbed far less than the discovery in the 1700s. Air will be extracted and replaced with argon, an inert gas. The air will be examined in order to determine the constituents of the atmosphere in the 1600s. This will be of particular interest with regards to discovering the impact of man and pollution on the Earth.
The interior of the coffins will be examined with a fibre optic probe, and possibly tissue samples will be taken. However great care will be taken not to disturb the remains or to let fresh air get to them. Thus they will continue to lie undamaged. Maybe in the far future they will be recoverable as people, but this will depend on whether there is any tangible evidence of their memories and personalities left in their brains. The chances of this are remote - impossible, say the cryonicists, just as many people say the same thing about the bodies they have frozen.
However, such forms of interment are one step ahead of "rot or burn", and maybe they would provide a degree of hope to clients who cannot afford cryonics or who cannot arrange it for family reasons. Also, if funds permit, one could add in the proposals made by Douglas Skrecky2,3,4,5. Skrecky proposed caskets made of high technology stainless steels and similar materials. Maybe a wood coffin of simple design covered in lead, soldered well enough to be airtight, would do just as well.
References
1 Coffins Lift the Lid on Atmospheric Change Susan Adkins, New Scientist 29 August 1992, page 7. 2 The New Egyptians Douglas Skrecky, Funeral Service Journal November 1991. 3 The New Egyptians part 2 Douglas Skrecky Funeral Service Journal June 1992. 4 High Speed Dessication Douglas Skrecky Longevity Report 30 page 20 5 Vitrification Douglas Skrecky Longevity Report 35 page 8
by Douglas Skrecky
It sometimes happens that the bereaved may wish that the body of the deceased be preserved rather than cremated or exposed to the elements. Such remains are then placed in a metal casket before burial in order to prevent their deterioration. Unfortunately since embalming does not use a high enough dosage of formaldehyde to sterilize tissue placing embalmed corpses in metal caskets does not in fact preserve them1. Utilizing sufficient formaldehdye to sterilize results in a somewhat unnatural appearence and odour so embalming cannot involve sterilization. Still preserving the body of the deceased is not particularly difficult. All that needs to be done is to store an opened bottle of formaldehyde inside the metal casket so that the fumes eventually do the required job - discreetly.
The other roadblock to long term preservation is corrosion of the metal casket. Highly alloyed stainless steels such as Ferralium 255, SAF 2507 and Remanit 4565S do not corrode even in seawater. Extra long caskets constructed with these alloys and welded rather than soldered shut would probably last longer than the civilization which builds them. These expensive caskets might justify their price tags if the body of the deceased were preserved by complete desiccation with the intent of allowing for a possible resuscitation in the distant future. However what we are seeking here is not resuscitation but merely low cost preservation - for a time - of the body of the deceased and so less expensive materials would be used for casket construction. Long term corrosion studies of metal sheets buried in a variety of underground locations yield average penetration rates of 0.15 millimeter per year for steel, 0.12 mm for zinc, 0.07 mm for lead and 0.02 mm for copper. Aluminum varies considerably, but corrodes as much as steel in some soils2. Neither zinc, lead, copper nor alumininum can justify their price differential over steel on the basis of increased corrosion resistance, although aluminum might be used to advantage in some cases to reduce casket weight and lower shipping costs. In general however steel remains the most cost effective base material for casket construction.
A steel casket that could remain intact for several hundred years would however still be quite expensive as the gauge required would need to be so thick that the price would approach that of bronze caskets. It order to cut costs we need to borrow the expertise from pipeline companies. Faced with the high costs associated with corrosion these companies decided to protect their underground steel pipes from corrosion by encasing them in thick layers of coal tar enamel and running an electrical current through the pipes to galvanically protect them at any breaks in the coating. Such pipes have now been in service with little corrosion for 40 years3. Thus instead of building an expensive heavy gauge steel casket one need only construct a light gauge one and then coat it with a liberal amount of coal tar enamel.
For further increases in durability over simple coal tar coatings we can borrow the expertise of companies charged with protecting steel structures in the oceans. There steel is first coated with zinc, then an adhesive plastic such as epoxy is applied and finally a layer of less permeable and more weather resistent plastic such as polyurethane is used to encase the entire structure4. By sealing a light gauge galvanized steel casket with epoxy inside a slightly larger polyurethane casket we would have constructed a light weight inexpensive barrier system which would likely last for centuries.
References
1 page 233 of The Provision of Funeral and Cemetary Services in British Columbia by Richard Gosse, Special Consultant to the Minister
2 pages 179-180 of Corrosion and Corrosion Control by Herbert Uhlig
3 Double-Wrap Tape System Adopted for In Situ Recoating 39-43 January 1992 Material Performance
4 Coating Requirements for Offshore Structures 36-40 June 1992 Materials Performance
When people disbelieving in an afterlife wanted to ridicule Jesus, they asked him what would happen if a man marries, his wife dies, and then he marries another. Who will be his wife in heaven? Jesus replied that there is no marriage in heaven. (And probably lawyers won't like it there as a result!) Cryonicists are in a rather different position, and the issue was discussed in Cryonet Digest no 1. This a printed form of conversations carried on via computer bulletin boards about cryonic suspension.
For the wife problem, Mr Keith Henson suggested running off a second copy of the spouse, but later considered some difficulties of this approach. Each copy would still be attracted to both women, but each copy would be able to have only one of them. The result may be even more complicated, especially if both copies of the man preferred the same woman. Mr Kevin Q. Brown suggested that the deceased mate be considered as divorced. Other people discussed whether pair bonding could ever survive the trauma of suspension and reanimation. No one mentioned the problem that if a person was duplicated his wealth would be halved!
Another topic of conversation was nanotechnology, and cooling and heating patients. Edgar Swank produced the interesting suggestion of replacing the liquid circulation during suspension with gas circulation. The question of "life force" was also a matter of debate. People who refute cryonics often say that "the life force" will not survive freezing and thawing. Yet there are four forces known to physics, (nuclear, "weak", electromagnetic, gravity) which account for everything in the universe. "The life force" is as valid as old ideas like "caloric" for heat. This has now been replaced by thermodynamic theory. Even today people have some strange ideas, eg "this damn VCR doesn't want to operate correctly", inherited from a past where a belief in spirits explained such things as the weather or movement of the planets. Modern theories about how machines work suggest that it is not so bad to be "merely" a machine. The concept of a "soul" still has its place - as the program and data contained in the brain. Admittedly this is erased if the brain is allowed to rot or is burned, or cut up by a pathologist. However it can live on if the brain is preserved carefully until such time as it can be restored to life in a new or repaired body.
"Techies" and Luddites were discussed, and the points were raised that millions of people don't know how to program their VCRs, and many people would rather die than sign up for cryonic suspension. Would reanimated people be able to survive in the future? The general consensus seemed to be yes - humans have not changed much despite enormous technical advance. Most people are just confused rather than hostile to advances, and they do manage to use their VCRs and other products as much as they need.
Cryonet Digest is a collection of printed material taken from discussions on an electronic bulletin board on the subject of cryonic suspension. It appears monthly and is available from Charles Platt 9, Patchin Place New York NY10011 at $7 per four issues or $12 for eight issues. Mr Platt likes people to send cash or make cheques payable to Charles Platt.
These discussions often, like real discussions, fail to solve any problems. But one must realise the alternative. First you save your life. That is the main priority. Then you solve the other problems. However these debates often raise issues that may worry people considering cryonics, and often a partial solution may satisfy one person even if it doesn't satisfy everyone. As the number of suspensions are rising quite fast, the officers of cryonic societies don't have the time to enter into correspondence on issues such as the wives problem. Mr Platt's publication fills the gap. Even if you can't join in the discussion on computer bulletin boards, you can write to Cryonet Digest with your query or comment.
* * *
I was gratified by the number of funeral directors who applied for A Few Minutes Now Could Save Your Life Tomorrow the booklet produced by the Cryonics Institute. Good news is that a firm of international funeral directors has taken an interest and visited the Cryonics Institute with a view to setting up a network to enable people living anywhere in Europe to have immediate access to the Cryonics Institute's facilities. This should make it very easy for the small funeral director faced with a client wanting suspension services. Copies of A Few Minutes Now Could Save Your Life Tomorrow are still available free for the asking to any funeral director wanting them for present or future use, from Longevity Books (see advert.)
by Robert Ettinger (Cryonics Institute) and John de Rivaz (Longevity Books)
The problems for a firm of funeral directors assisting in a cryonic suspension for the Cryonics Institute are not really at all so formidable. The Institute's work with out of state funeral directors in the United States indicates the preparation and the actual task are relatively easy. Let us outline the main considerations.
1. Although cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is desirable if it can be provided promptly enough, it is at best a marginal consideration. The Cryonics Institute's work with animals, as well as observation of patients, indicates that by far the most important consideration is prompt cooling, washout and perfusion. Also, if personnel are available, it is possible to substitute manual chest compression, together with a bag resuscitator for ventilation, instead of an automated, expensive CPR machine. Lack of a CPR machine is not at all a major consideration. 2. The perfusion pump: An ordinary embalmer's pump has been found to work. To be safe, you can try it on your own machine; the only possible problem would be the viscosity of the cold perfusate, which is basically a 75% glycerine solution at 5oC. (It is even possible, although slow and laborious, to do without a pump, by using a large syringe and repeatedly injecting by hand.) 3. The equipment should be as clean as possible, but need not be surgically sterile. Our fluids will not damage your equipment, which can easily be cleaned out after use by repeated flushing with water. The washout and perfusion are done on open circuit, ie one pass, the fluids not being recirculated but allowed to drain from the patient. 4. The washout fluid is basically a physiological saline with a pH adjustment and sometimes other medications. (Because of possible legal risk, we do not recommend use of prescription medications, although some have been shown to be marginally useful.) The cryoprotectant perfusate is the same plus glycerine, glycerine concentration 75%. Both are preferably used cold, about 5oC as noted. The glycerine should be pharmaceutical grade, and should easily be available in England. Other ingredients should be easily available also, but if desired the Cryonics Institute can ship them to funeral directors. Alternatively a concentrated washout solution can be shipped which can then be diluted with distilled water. 5. Shipment in ice. The shipping container should be insulated with styrofoam or other suitable material, and packed with enough ice (in watertight bags) to ensure some will be left unmelted at the end of the trip. This should be tested beforehand. 6. Shipment (alternatively) in "dry ice" or solid carbon dioxide. Ordinarily the process of freezing and cool-down to dry ice temperature will be done at the Cryonics Institute, where the rate of cooling can be carefully monitored and controlled. But in some cases--e.g. if prompt shipment is not possible for some reason--it may be desired to freeze the patient and use temporary dry ice storage in Europe. In that case, shipment will be in dry ice, and will require better insulation. Again, test the adequacy of insulation before shipping.
CI is not aware of any restriction on shipment in dry ice, and has received patients shipped in dry ice from other countries. However, it is important to check carefully with the airlines--all airlines if there is a transfer en route--to make sure available aircraft can handle the size and weight. In the worst case, if the patient is already at dry ice temperature but shipment in dry ice is not allowed, if no other solution can be found, you could ship the patient in ordinary ice supercooled using dry ice or even liquid nitrogen. Most cases, including difficult ones, can be handled on a common-sense basis according to circumstances and ability. The currently recommended washout and perfusion procedures are as follows. If special circumstances warrant, embalmers should use their own judgment, bearing in mind the main objectives. These are to cool the patient as promptly as possible, wash out the blood and perfuse with glycerine solution. Edema needs to be avoided, and glycerine uptake, especially to the head, needs to be maximised. Glycerine uptake is indicated by shrinkage and colour. For a person of average size 20 litres each of washout solution and glycerine perfusate may be needed. Washout will be ended when the effluent is clear or if edema becomes pronounced.
The patient is packed in ice, or/and cooled by other available means such as a cooling blanket, preferably wherever death occurs, with special attention to the head. Heparin is used as feasible, up to 30,000 units, or 40,000 for a very large person. (The heparin will not do much good unless circulation can be maintained by CPR. If intravenous injection is difficult, peritoneal or other injection may be used. If heparin cannot effectively be introduced otherwise, you may want to add it to the washout solution.) The right and left common carotid artery and the right and left internal jugular vein are used for the washout/perfusion site. The use of these vessels will allow the head to remain packed in ice. The Cryonics Institute washes out first the head then the rest of the body.
The Cryonics Institute use one pass on open circuit ie, first the washout fluid, and later the perfusate go into the artery, and the blood and the other fluids flow out of the jugular vein, to be disposed of in any convenient way. If feasible, it might be helpful to occasionally collect a small vial of effluent, labelling it as to time and stage of procedure. Both arteries are raised and cannulated, and both veins opened. The fluids are injected up the arteries, the left side being washed first then the right. Next the right side is perfused (it is already connected), then the left. A low pressure 5 lb/in2 or less, and a medium rate of flow is used, adjusting as indicated. During and after perfusion the scalp and face appear almost leathery; the glycerine solution draws water out and produces shrinkage, which is desirable. The same observations will be made of limbs and torso, although to a lesser extent.
After the head has been washed out and perfused, it is usually only necessary to inject down the right artery to wash out and perfuse the rest of the body. As already noted, circumstances alter cases, and other sites can be used for injections. But the fewer incisions the better.
No cavity work is done. At the end of the perfusion, the vessels are tied off and sutured. No incision sealant or cotton is used. The fluids should be used cold, about 5oC or 41oF, but if an emergency occurs when no cold solutions are to hand, room temperature ones can be used, as it is still below normal body temperature. That, then, is what the funeral director has to do when offered the opportunity to help someone wanting cryonic suspension. This is more than engaging in some ritual. It is a positive step towards doing something about death and its avoidance. The thought that he may be suspended has given the client some hope during his life, and it will also give those he leaves behind the comfort that they have done something positive about the deceased. Although it is difficult to point the finger at a particular individual and say "Yes, you will be suspended and revived", it is almost certain that some people who are suspended in the 20th century will be revived in the future. Maybe one of you will have played a part in this historic endeavour.
by Douglas Skrecky
Inexpensive grades of low alloy steel may soon be available for casket construction which can match the corrosion resistance of copper, yet be no more expensive than plain low carbon steel. Sound unlikely? Until recently this would have been only a corrosion engineer's pipe dream, but something has happened to change all that. That something is nitrogen.
For years scientists have searched for ways to decrease the corrosion of steel. Very small additions of copper, chromium, molybdenum and nickel have been found to increase the adherence of rust layers to steel during atmospheric exposure and thus protect the iron substrate from further attack. Thus reasonably low cost weathering steels were formulated, which still see considerable use in the construction industry. However with continuous exposure to water in underground or ocean environments the rust layers readily go into solution and little advantage accrues. For instance in seawater alloying additions of 1% chromium, or 0.3% molybdenum only slightly reduce corrosion rates, while modestly higher levels of these elements seem to have little additional effect.1
As zinc preferentially corrodes when in contact with iron, zinc coatings have been used to "galvanically" protect steel. Unfortunately this protection lasts only as long as it takes the zinc coating itself to be completely destroyed. Thus galvanizing inhibits rusting only for about 10 years in underground applications. In an effort to improve on this the communications industry has used clad metals, where a thin layer of an inexpensive grade of stainless steel is sandwiched between two steel sheets. These sheets then galvanically protect the stainless steel from attack until they are destroyed and thus prevent perforation for longer than even a solid stainless steel plate would.2 However this is getting rather expensive.
In a search for more economical alternatives silicon additions to steel have been tried and seawater corrosion rates were indeed found to be reduced by over 99 percent!3 However high silicon iron alloys are very brittle, can only be used as castings and see relatively little use as a result. If a corrosion engineer could patent a method for eliminating the brittleness problem he would undoubtedly become very wealthy in short order. Unfortunately this cannot be done. Silicon is a near miss.
In an effort to increase the corrosion resistance of stainless steels already containing large amounts of chromium and molybdenum, small 0.1%-0.25% amounts of nitrogen were also added.4 The results were so outstanding that virtually all highly alloyed stainless steels now contain nitrogen additions. Recent research has found that larger 0.5%-1.0% additions increase both tensile strength and corrosion resistance to unheard of levels. The temperature at which pitting corrosion occurs has been found to depend upon the chromium content in the alloy, plus 3 times the molybdenum content, plus 30 times the nitrogen content!5
Can nitrogen additions by themselves decrease the corrosion of iron? Apparently this is so, as nitriding iron has been found to reduce corrosion rates by over 99 percent, though brittleness is once again a problem at these high levels of nitrogen.6 Fortunately, unlike silicon, nitrogen does not begin to affect fracture toughness of austenite iron until levels beyond around 1% are reached. Thus both tensile strength and corrosion can be greatly increased without brittleness being a problem provided some nickel or manganese is used to stabilize the austenite microstructure. Like some stainless steels, high nitrogen steel is susceptible to pitting so further alloying additions will be needed to overcome this defect. The addition of a very small 0.07% niobium addition to nitrogen containing stainless steels forms chromium/niobium/nitrides which prevent carbon particles from initiating pitting at grain boundaries.7 Thus small chromium and niobium additions would probably be helpful. A 1% copper addition has also been found to offer some synergism with nitrogen and lowering sulphur levels seems to help as well.8 Finally the addition of manganese increases the solubility of nitrogen in steel.
So now we have a low sulphur high nitrogen manganese steel with small additions of chromium, niobium and copper which would (hopefully) possess the corrosion resistance of copper, yet be no more expensive than low carbon steel since its increased strength would allow less metal to be used. Will this work? Hopefully we won't have to wait much longer to see.
1 85-91 Vol.63 No.2 1992 Steel Research
2 Corrosion Barrier Materials for the Communications Industry 30-33 September 1977 Materials Performance
3 Erosion-Corrosion Behaviour of Some Cast Alloys in Seawater 206-217 Vol.48 No.3 1992 Corrosion
4 The Use of Nitrogen to Improve the Corrosion Resistance of FeCrNiMo Alloys for the Chemical Process Industries 18-28 June 1987 Materials Performance
5 High Nitrogen Stainless Steels in Chloride Solutions 59-61 September 1992 Materials Performance
6 Effect of Nitriding on the Anodic Behaviour of Iron and its Significance in Pitting Corrosion of Iron-Based Alloys 835-839 Vol.47 No.11 1991 Corrosion
7 Effect of Nb on Intergranular Precipitation Behaviour of Cr Carbides in N-bearing Austenitic Stainless Steels 467-474 Vol.48 No.6 1992 Corrosion
8 Crevice Corrosion Resistance of Commercial and High-Purity Experimental Stainless Steels in Marine Environments 574-581 Vol.46 No.7 1990 Corrosion
Following a visit to the USA last year by Mr Barry Albin, F.A. Albin & Sons have been appointed as the Cryonics Institute's agents in the UK and Europe. Although Cryonics Institute clients won't be prohibited from using anyone else, the considerable experience and abilities F.A. Albin & Sons have in the relevant fields would put any competitor to a severe disadvantage. In addition, F.A. Albin & Sons have already built one transport casket to suit the conditions of the Cryonics Institute and the airline involved.
The Albin family have been Funeral Directors for over 200 years. The most recent of the many generations involved in the business is Mr Barry Albin. He heads the company following on from Fred and George who can still be found actively involved in the day to day running of the service. A family team of Barry, Jan, Jackie, Rose, and the two Terrys are always available to help clients.
The present premises were built in 1974 on the former site of the Runge Hall in Culling Road. It was built to serve the local community and has every facility to assist families at the time of bereavement. However they are able to service families on a much wider scale, and on occasions have completed funerals in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and even abroad.
However the fact F.A. Albin & Sons are situated in south east London and this does not by itself solve the problem for people living elsewhere. Therefore they offer an arrangement with local funeral directors who are contacted by people requiring cryonic services. On placing the business through FAA, the local firms will receive 10% of FAA's fee, plus disbursements depending on the work done.
Payment for pre-arranged cryonics can come by a number of different routes. The most favourable from the clients point of view is a trust that pays out upon death to the Cryonics Institute who then make payments to contractors in the UK. The advantage of this to the client is that the client's money is working for him in the best possible way with the minimum of losses to professional fees or low returns. However not everyone can afford trusts, and unfortunately it is these people who have to use the less financially efficient methods such as advance payment, life insurance etc. But the good news for the funeral profession is people making plans for pre-arranged cryonics have to have the money available to the Cryonics Institute without the delays, uncertainties and possible injustices of the probate system, and the Cryonics Institute have the ability to pay funeral directors p