In a message dated 98-12-05 17:01:22 EST, tdonaghe@yahoo.com (Terry Donaghe) wrote:
> Ok, given all of that, is there a point in going forward with cryonics
There are no facilities close to North Carolina, but there are none close to Houston, where I live, either. Part of what the cost of your membership in Alcor (and presumably other organizations) buys is the mechanism that has been developed for servicing members who live beyond the local Phoenix area. Your Alcor bracelet or pendant contains minimal emergency first aid information about beginning the suspension process and, more important, a telephone number to be called that will trigger immediate response from Alcor's suspension teams. The people at Alcor will literally spring into action to guide the first steps of the suspension remotely, and will be at the scene within hours at most. The first steps that are taken before they arrive are designed to minimize ischemia as much as possible.
Of course, if your death results from a degenerative or otherwise predictable disease, many steps can be taken ahead of time to get equipment pre-positioned and local aid prepared for the initial steps in the suspension process. Making your personal physician aware of your cryonics arrangements goes a long way toward ensuring that this will be done.
Many suspensions have been performed on Alcor members who lived far away from Arizona (or before that, California). Many of those were done according to the then state of the art. Recent advances and ones which we can reasonably expect in the near future continue to improve the freezing process, from the time of death through the eventual complete suspension at liquid nitrogen vitrification temperatures. So, the future looks bright: Join it!
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<burchg@liddellsapp.com> Attorney ::: Director, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1 "Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience." -- Admiral Hyman Rickover