From: hkhenson@cup.portal.com
Subject: Re: Cryonic suspenson of an AIDS patient
Note: non-commercial reproduction.
Archive-Number: 4830
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
Date: Wed,  8 Apr 92 21:26:31 PDT

This article had hardly hit the wires when I started to get requests
for more information.  This is general background information, I will
either find or write a technical description of the process.  K. Henson.
------
             CRYONICS AND THE ALCOR LIFE EXTENSION FOUNDATION
 
     CRYONIC SUSPENSION is an experimental procedure whereby patients 
who can no longer be kept alive with today's medical abilities are 
preserved at low temperatures for treatment in the future.  Although 
this procedure is not yet reversible, it is based on the expectation 
that medical technology of the future will be able to cure today's 
diseases, reverse the effects of aging, and repair any additional 
injury caused by the freezing process.  That superior technology could 
then resuscitate suspended patients to enjoy health and youth 
indefinitely.  The field which deals with this procedure is called 
CRYONICS.  (This should not be confused with "cryogenics," which is 
the branch of engineering which is concerned with the production and 
study of low temperatures.) 
 
     Cryonics is not a cult or a religion of any kind.  The people 
involved in cryonics hold widely varying views on religion, politics, 
and social issues.  Their occupations include scientists, physicians, 
computer programmers, business owners, teachers, librarians, and 
secretaries. However, they all agree that being alive is a wonderful 
thing and that this technology may help them stay that way. 
 
    Cryonics might better be seen as an experimental medical 
technology.  This label may seem strange at first, since many people 
have the mistaken impression that cryonics patients are dead.  
Cryonics is not a new way of storing dead bodies.  It is a new way of 
saving lives.  Cryonicists refer to these frozen people as PATIENTS, 
because we firmly believe that they are, in a very real sense, still 
alive. 
 
    People really are being frozen; it is no longer science fiction. 
Approximately 50 persons have been frozen since the first cryonic 
suspension in 1967.  About 300 other people have made the financial 
and legal arrangements to be suspended in case they should become 
terminally ill or injured.  However, any stories you may read about 
frozen people being revived are definitely science fiction.  No human 
has ever been thawed out and revived (with the exception of human 
embryos), and it will be a long time before this happens.  Medical 
technology has not yet advanced to the point where cryonic suspension 
is reversible; today's deadly illnesses and injuries are not yet 
curable; and even if these things had been accomplished, there is no 
point in reviving anyone until the aging process is fully under 
control.  No one wants to be reawakened as an aged, infirm person. 
 
    Cryonics is not yet accepted as a legitimate life-saving procedure 
by today's medical authorities.  With our current technology we cannot 
prove that a frozen human can be repaired and revived (although a 
great deal of research suggests that this will be possible in the 
future).  Unfortunately, this situation creates numerous medical, 
legal, and even political difficulties.  For instance, if a patient 
were to be suspended while he was legally alive, someone might claim 
that the suspension process itself had killed the patient, creating 
the possibility of criminal or civil charges against the suspension 
team.  Therefore, current cryonics practice is to suspend dying 
patients as soon as possible after cardiac arrest (stopping of the 
heart) and declaration of "legal death." 
 
    This course of action can be seen as reasonable once one realizes 
that "legal death" is not the same as "biological death."  A physician 
declares legal death when a patient's condition cannot be repaired 
with current medical knowledge and techniques.  However, the process 
of deterioration which we call "dying" is not a sudden happening.  It 
is much more like slipping into an ever deepening coma.  Even several 
hours after declaration of death, most of the cells in the body 
(including those in the brain) are still individually alive and 
capable of resuming function. 
 
    As late as the 1940's, people who stopped breathing because of heart
attacks or drowning were routinely declared dead.  Today thousands of
people have survived heart attacks and other conditions which would have
been fatal 40 years ago.  Children have survived over an hour of
"drowning" in cold water.  Were those heart attack and drowning victims
really dead forty years ago, but nature has changed the rules today?  Of
course not; those people were still alive-- doctors just did not know what
to do about it.  In the same way, most people who are declared dead TODAY
would be called "alive" by doctors of the future.  With that observation
in mind, we think these patients should be considered potentially "alive"
NOW, and we should do something to KEEP them that way.
 
    Even within the next 10-15 years, you are likely to be amazed by the
amount of progress in recovering patients from strokes, heart attacks, and
lack of blood circulation to the brain.  Ultimately, it should be possible
to recover patients as long as basic brain structure remains intact
(several hours past the point at which today's doctors give up).  In the
next century, the medical knowledge of the 1990's will seem as primitive
as the medical understandings of one hundred years ago seem to us.
Cryonic suspension itself will cure nothing, but it buys time for the
patient, keeping his body virtually unchanged until a future when his
suspended state may be considered only an extremely deep coma.  Even now
there is solid evidence that cooling the human body to liquid nitrogen
temperature (-320 degrees F), with the use of techniques to reduce
freezing injury, can preserve the fine structure of the brain
indefinitely.
 
    There is no guarantee that cryonic suspension will ever allow for
future revival.  We do not know enough to state with absolute certainty
that this procedure is workable.  However, the case for the possible
future revival of suspended patients grows stronger all of the time.  One
recent argument in favor of future repair and revival of suspended
patients was provided by K. Eric Drexler in his fascinating book, ENGINES
OF CREATION (Doubleday, 1986).  This book details the beginnings of the
new field of "nanotechnology" (also called "molecular engineering").
Nanotechnology is the next step smaller than micro-technology, and it will
create industries which will operate by working with atoms and molecules
one at a time.  Among other astounding developments, this will lead to
computers and cell repair machines one thousand times smaller than a human
cell. Such devices could repair any disease or injury (including that from
freezing) by working directly on the cells themselves.
 
    It must be pointed out that cryonicists are not people with some
fixation on cold temperatures.  None of us want to be frozen.  We are
simply people who like being alive, and who want to see the future and all
of its wonders.  For us, cryonics provides a safety net, a last-ditch
attempt at life-saving which may give us the chance to see that future.
 
    Our cryonics organization, the Alcor Life Extension Foundation
("Alcor"), is a California not-for-profit corporation, registered with the
Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt scientific organization.  Alcor
has a fully equipped and operational research laboratory, operating room,
and patient storage facility in Riverside, California.  Alcor was formed
as a mutual aid society, where the members are committed to helping each
other.  All Alcor board members, officials, and suspension team personnel
are required to be full suspension members.  We do not want a situation
which could pit "Alcor" against "the members."  Alcor IS its members.  All
decisions on the safety of the patients and stability of the organization
are made with the knowledge that they will affect everyone in the
organization.
 
    If you would like further information, send a note to 
alcor@cup.portal.com and ask for a copy of THRESHOLD TO TOMORROW. 

    There is a cryonics mail group (naturally) run by Kevin Brown.  Mail 
to kqb@whscad1.att.com will get you on the list. 

    Keith Henson hkhenson@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids