A while back, I had to turn off the comments, on this blog, due to the malicious links being posted, in that section, on a regular basis. This morning, I received the following, from someone who had attempted to comment on this post: http://cryomedical.blogspot.com/2010/11/cryonics-well-oiled-propaganda-machine.html (I am temporarily omitting the name of the author, while awaiting his permission to include it.)
"Bravo for this post. It is good to see people taking on the cryonics industry--and indeed is is an industry like any other--and shining light on it.
There is a deluded notion by those who are so fearful of dying and so desperate for any alternative, that organizations like Alcor are altruistic and can be trusted to do the right thing without supervision. In truth, much of this is the modern version of snake oil.
And what most people don't realize is that people like Brian Wowk have major financial stakes in ensuring cryonics and cryonic-related organizations remain untarnished. They are paid through grant money, donations, etc from foundations or the public.
Even though Suspended Animation does not directly impact Wowk or Steve Harris (of Alcor), if the field of cryonics is shown to be full of con-men and incompetents, then their own funding (and paychecks) are likely to be cut. They have got a very, very large financial stake in all of this.
It is similar to Big Tobacco--none of the major tobacco firms wanted any of their competitors to get nabbed or regulated for their abuses of the public trust or deception/manipulation of the science, because if one tobacco company fell, they would all fall. That's why you see the Brian Wowks of the world coming to the aid of Suspended Animation. They're covering their own asses. Just like Big Tobacco has always banded together against outsiders, even though the individual companies of the industry are direct competitors.
It is time these organizations come under strict legal jurisdiction and regulation. They must be accountable. There must be public light on their activities. Complete transparency and accountability. If they are honest, there should be nothing for them to fear from this.
I hope your efforts prove fruitful. Don't give up. We need to bring some honesty to these industries and the individuals behind them."
(End quote.)
I think that was an excellent assessment of the situation, with the exception being that these companies have much closer ties than the tobacco companies. Suspended Animation, Critical Care Research (Harris et. al.) and 21st Century Medicine (Wowk et. al.) are not competitors. I believe most, (if not all), of SA, CCR and 21CM's funding comes from Saul Kent/LEF. (Saul Kent is identified as the "owner" of 21CM on Alcor's 2008 form 990.)
Dr. Wowk and I are having a debate, on lesswrong.com, and I'm not liking his tactics. I'm not sure if Dr. Wowk is attempting to mislead people, or if he has been mislead, himself, but some of his remarks are way off the mark.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Cryonics' Well-Oiled Propaganda Machine
Why does Brian Wowk PhD write, “Lies travel halfway around world while the truth is putting on its shoes,” in response to someone's comments about my blog, and then temper it with, “(t)his reply is mostly directed to David Gerard, whose comments have been generally sensible except for some misinformation”? (See Dr. Wowk's comments, under the "lesswrong" post, here: http://lesswrong.com/lw/343/suspended_animation_inc_accused_of_incompetence/)
Does Brian Wowk even know what the truth is, in regard to the information to which he would like to object? Like Steve Harris MD, (Chief Medical Advisor to Alcor and someone who posted blatant lies about me on the Internet, in response to my criticisms of Suspended Animation), Dr. Wowk was working in California, while I was working at Suspended Animation, in Florida. He doesn’t know what was going on at SA when I was there, any more than Harris did, and he very likely does not know what really goes on there, now. He also did not work at the Alcor facility, with Larry Johnson, but that didn’t stop him from calling Johnson’s book “400 pages of lies,” (under oath, no less).
Like Steve Harris MD's Critical Care Research, Dr. Wowk’s organization, 21st Century Medicine, receives substantial funding, courtesy of Life Extension Foundation, the same company that funds Suspended Animation and makes generous contributions to Alcor. Both these men live and work in California, so why have they they been two of the primary defenders of SA, a company in Florida? Why don’t Jennifer Chapman (President and Executive Director of Alcor) and Catherine Baldwin (Manager of Suspended Animation) defend the organizations they lead? Why should a PhD and an MD, who are not employees of SA and/or Alcor, defend those companies against accusations of incompetence and unethical behavior? Could it be that many with close ties to Saul Kent, Life Extension Foundation, SA and Alcor are lacking in credibility? Will Dr. Wowk’s efforts to defend those who fund his generous annual compensation, soon leave him with a similar reputation?
Suspended Animation is a secretive organization, which has not produced their “monthly” News Bulletin in nearly two years, and which refuses to identify their personnel, or the qualifications, (or lack thereof), of those personnel. Their case reports, (even the most recent ones), CLEARLY indicate an extreme level of incompetence in performing medical procedures, which were virtually perfected many decades ago, and any defense of their ability to properly perform these procedures would not hold up to the scrutiny of expert witnesses in a court of law, or in front of a regulatory agency.
Dr. Wowk wrote, “In Johnson's case there were also other issues that no decent organization could allow uncontested, such as selling alleged photographs of the remains of Ted Williams on the Internet. Not suing for something like that would expose the organization itself to liability.” I’m baffled by Dr. Wowk’s remarks. As I recall reading, Johnson posted the Ted Williams photos for a very brief time, (minutes, or hours, many years ago), before he realized it was pretty tasteless, and then took the photos down. Alcor did not sue anyone for that activity, when it occurred, as far as I know. Does everyone know what the “decent organization” of Alcor did in response to Larry Johnson’s first whistleblowing, all those years ago? They attempted to pay him $17,000 to keep his mouth shut. They drafted an agreement, but Johnson later changed his mind, didn’t sign the formally-typed version of the document, sent back the $17,000 check, and wrote a book. (Unfortunately, for Johnson, an Arizona judge has ruled the handwritten agreement is binding, something I believe Johnson’s attorneys may be appealing.) In my opinion, Johnson had, not only a right, but an obligation, to inform the public of the activities he witnessed at Alcor, and he should be protected as a whistleblower.
Does anyone think Johnson made more than $17,000, on the book? Think again. He first contacted me, when the book was about to be released. He told me he would never make a profit on the book, because Alcor would sue him for every penny he made, and more. Recent New York court documents state a measly 33,000 copies of Johnson’s book were sold, (an amazingly low number, in light of the generous publicity), yet Alcor is orchestrating ongoing legal battles with Johnson et. al. in three states. With that in mind, I think it's safe to assume Johnson’s prediction rang true, many months ago. Taking the $17K and keeping his mouth shut would have been the fiscally-wise decision, but I believe Johnson felt morally-obligated to expose the events he claims to have witnessed, at Alcor, (a frame of mind I can identify with).
While Dr. Wowk is correct, in that I have not worked for SA in years, and never under the current management, I have read their most recent reports, and I stand by my criticisms of that organization, and of cryonics activities, in general. If Dr. Wowk’s semi-veiled threats about possible “legal redress,” were meant to intimidate me, it was a waste of keystrokes. Personally, I welcome any opportunity to draw attention to the urgent need for the stringent regulation of cryonics organizations, (something I was previously opposed to), and am thankful to Dr. Wowk for presenting this particular opportunity. If these people cannot be trusted to consistently behave in a professional and ethical manner, without someone looking over their shoulders, (and I see little evidence they are capable of doing so), strict regulation is the logical answer. Dr. Wowk showing up, in recent months, to defend what I consider to be extremely unprofessional activities, has been something akin to the “last straw,” for me, in regard to believing anyone working in these organizations can be trusted to be forthcoming, in regard to the truth about Alcor’s and/or SA’s activities and/or capabilities.
For example, Dr. Wowk writes, "SA in fact contracts with professional perfusionists and surgeons." Why did Dr. Wowk leave out the fact that none of these people are guaranteed to show up for cases? When I was working at SA, they had a contract with a group of paramedics, too. That contract involved the paramedic group receiving a monthly retainer and extremely generous compensation for showing up for training sessions, but did not require them to show up for actual cryonics cases, a situation that resulted in SA sending three laymen, with no medical experience whatsoever, to perform (botch) their procedures. On the Cold Filter forum, Steve Harris informed us the perfusion group SA contracts with, costs them a bundle. Not only does SA pay for the perfusionists, but they lease some very expensive equipment from the perfusion group. Mathew Sullivan verified, (also on the Cold Filter forum) that, like the paramedics, the perfusionists are not required to show up for cases, unless they are available, (meaning they are not needed for conventional medical procedures, when SA calls them). In my opinion, contracted medical professionals, who are not obligated to attend cases, are nothing more than “window dressing".
If SA has qualified surgeons available, as Dr. Wowk claims, why was historical cryonics figure, Curtis Henderson kept at relatively warm temperatures, for MANY hours, and subjected to numerous incisions, last year, by SA’s manager, Catherine Baldwin, who is not a physician, much less a surgeon, (though she falsely referred to herself in SA’s published case report as a “surgeon”)? It seems she couldn't even FIND, much less cannulate, some of the largest blood vessels in the human body. (Afterward, someone from SA's perfusion group said, to me, "You were right, they can't do a cannulation.") I’m sure Dr. Wowk is aware of that case, and an Alcor case, which occurred at about the same time, in which another SA pseudo-surgeon, (someone who is also NOT a physician, much less a surgeon), is said to have cut well into the abdomen of an Alcor member, while attempting to perform a femoral cannulation. Is Dr. Wowk not aware that two of SA’s “surgeons,” (who, again, are NOT physicians, at all), butchered these two people, just last year, while trying to perform vascular cannulations, for SA?
SA’s contracted perfusionists did show up for each of those cases, but a perfusionist without a surgeon to perform the cannulation is basically useless. SA might as well have taken along the usual laymen to perform perfusion, since they didn’t have anyone to perform a proper vascular cannulation. It’s pretty meaningless, (and even deceptive), for Dr. Wowk to be claiming SA has “professional perfusionists and surgeons,” when there is no guarantee either will show up for a case, and one is no good without the other. The truth is, NOT ONE staff member of Suspended Animation, or Alcor, is a medical professional qualified to perform vascular cannulations or perfusion, the two medical procedures required to deliver cryonics washout and/or vitrification solutions...the procedures for which SA and Alcor charge $60,000 to $200,000.
Does it make sense to Dr. Wowk, for two companies, (each with a seven-figure annual budget), said to be in the business of delivering medical procedures that require competently-performed vascular cannulations and perfusion, to have staffs of six-to-ten persons, each, without either one having even ONE staff member professionally-qualified to perform the medical services they are selling, with price tags up to $200,000? Why is it the self-proclaimed “world leader” of cryonics, and the company that seems to be their primary standby team, don't have competent, qualified personnel, but contract with professionals who are not guaranteed to show up, instead? (Note that there were no contracts with professional perfusionists, prior to harsh public criticisms of allowing laymen to perform these procedures.)
I believe Dr. Wowk’s comment, in regard to someone attempting to “sabotage” SA’s relationship with their contracted perfusionists, is a reference to me. Perhaps Dr. Wowk does not know that I was acquainted with one of the leaders of that perfusion group, for quite a few years, prior to SA contracting with them. If one of Dr. Wowk's peers, someone he was acquainted with, was to be placed in a potentially career-damaging position, would Dr. Wowk not apprise them of the situation? Perhaps Dr. Wowk does not know that it was I, who first suggested SA contract with that same group, (a suggestion that was shot down, when I made it, back in 2006). Dr. Wowk certainly does not know that, even if I had been happily employed at SA, at the time the perfusion group was contracted, I would have made full disclosure of the situation, to them. I would have warned them they might show up for cases and not have anyone to perform the needed cannulations, because that would have been the professional thing to do. I would also have warned them that there had been a lot of scandal associated with cryonics, and expressed my concerns regarding certain issues related to cryonics procedures, (such as issues related to SA's medications, and state laws regarding performing procedures on the deceased). Finally, I would have asked their permission to post their company name on the SA website, before placing it there, something Catherine Baldwin failed to do. (After I informed the group their company name was listed on the SA website, (ironically, while SA was not willing to disclose the identities of their own staff members), the perfusion group requested their name be removed from the site.) Dr. Wowk can call my gestures “sabotage,” if he likes, but those professionals deserved to know the truth about what they were getting into, and Catherine Baldwin should have been the one to inform them. I wrote about my communication with SA’s perfusionists, here: http://cryomedical.blogspot.com/2009/11/suspended-animations-perfusionists.html
Dr. Wowk remarks that “Alcor's Chief Medical Advisor, Steven B. Harris, MD, has sat on the Editorial Board of Skeptic magazine for many years and is respected for his contributions to scientific skepticism.” Steve Harris is the head of another secretive LEF-funded organization, Critical Care Research (CCR). The last known staff members of CCR, (a company that receives nearly a million dollars a year in funding, from the same company that funds SA and 21stCM), were Harris and three of his family members. Harris has publicly distributed a mountain of questionable medical advice, and doled out numerous blatant lies, in attempts to defend the companies his benefactors fund. I’ve written about him, extensively, on this blog. (Check the index, on the right side of the page.) I think Dr. Wowk will understand why I am unimpressed, though I'm guessing he hoped other readers would be. Anyone of reasonable intelligence, and having general knowledge of perfusion procedures, and being aware of some of Harris' many bizarre responses to my criticisms of Alcor and SA's perfusion procedures, would be skeptical of Harris.
Until recently, I had a fairly high regard for Dr. Wowk’s integrity, but in my opinion, he’s starting to look like someone fairly close to the hub of a well-oiled propaganda-spewing machine.
Does Brian Wowk even know what the truth is, in regard to the information to which he would like to object? Like Steve Harris MD, (Chief Medical Advisor to Alcor and someone who posted blatant lies about me on the Internet, in response to my criticisms of Suspended Animation), Dr. Wowk was working in California, while I was working at Suspended Animation, in Florida. He doesn’t know what was going on at SA when I was there, any more than Harris did, and he very likely does not know what really goes on there, now. He also did not work at the Alcor facility, with Larry Johnson, but that didn’t stop him from calling Johnson’s book “400 pages of lies,” (under oath, no less).
Like Steve Harris MD's Critical Care Research, Dr. Wowk’s organization, 21st Century Medicine, receives substantial funding, courtesy of Life Extension Foundation, the same company that funds Suspended Animation and makes generous contributions to Alcor. Both these men live and work in California, so why have they they been two of the primary defenders of SA, a company in Florida? Why don’t Jennifer Chapman (President and Executive Director of Alcor) and Catherine Baldwin (Manager of Suspended Animation) defend the organizations they lead? Why should a PhD and an MD, who are not employees of SA and/or Alcor, defend those companies against accusations of incompetence and unethical behavior? Could it be that many with close ties to Saul Kent, Life Extension Foundation, SA and Alcor are lacking in credibility? Will Dr. Wowk’s efforts to defend those who fund his generous annual compensation, soon leave him with a similar reputation?
Suspended Animation is a secretive organization, which has not produced their “monthly” News Bulletin in nearly two years, and which refuses to identify their personnel, or the qualifications, (or lack thereof), of those personnel. Their case reports, (even the most recent ones), CLEARLY indicate an extreme level of incompetence in performing medical procedures, which were virtually perfected many decades ago, and any defense of their ability to properly perform these procedures would not hold up to the scrutiny of expert witnesses in a court of law, or in front of a regulatory agency.
Dr. Wowk wrote, “In Johnson's case there were also other issues that no decent organization could allow uncontested, such as selling alleged photographs of the remains of Ted Williams on the Internet. Not suing for something like that would expose the organization itself to liability.” I’m baffled by Dr. Wowk’s remarks. As I recall reading, Johnson posted the Ted Williams photos for a very brief time, (minutes, or hours, many years ago), before he realized it was pretty tasteless, and then took the photos down. Alcor did not sue anyone for that activity, when it occurred, as far as I know. Does everyone know what the “decent organization” of Alcor did in response to Larry Johnson’s first whistleblowing, all those years ago? They attempted to pay him $17,000 to keep his mouth shut. They drafted an agreement, but Johnson later changed his mind, didn’t sign the formally-typed version of the document, sent back the $17,000 check, and wrote a book. (Unfortunately, for Johnson, an Arizona judge has ruled the handwritten agreement is binding, something I believe Johnson’s attorneys may be appealing.) In my opinion, Johnson had, not only a right, but an obligation, to inform the public of the activities he witnessed at Alcor, and he should be protected as a whistleblower.
Does anyone think Johnson made more than $17,000, on the book? Think again. He first contacted me, when the book was about to be released. He told me he would never make a profit on the book, because Alcor would sue him for every penny he made, and more. Recent New York court documents state a measly 33,000 copies of Johnson’s book were sold, (an amazingly low number, in light of the generous publicity), yet Alcor is orchestrating ongoing legal battles with Johnson et. al. in three states. With that in mind, I think it's safe to assume Johnson’s prediction rang true, many months ago. Taking the $17K and keeping his mouth shut would have been the fiscally-wise decision, but I believe Johnson felt morally-obligated to expose the events he claims to have witnessed, at Alcor, (a frame of mind I can identify with).
While Dr. Wowk is correct, in that I have not worked for SA in years, and never under the current management, I have read their most recent reports, and I stand by my criticisms of that organization, and of cryonics activities, in general. If Dr. Wowk’s semi-veiled threats about possible “legal redress,” were meant to intimidate me, it was a waste of keystrokes. Personally, I welcome any opportunity to draw attention to the urgent need for the stringent regulation of cryonics organizations, (something I was previously opposed to), and am thankful to Dr. Wowk for presenting this particular opportunity. If these people cannot be trusted to consistently behave in a professional and ethical manner, without someone looking over their shoulders, (and I see little evidence they are capable of doing so), strict regulation is the logical answer. Dr. Wowk showing up, in recent months, to defend what I consider to be extremely unprofessional activities, has been something akin to the “last straw,” for me, in regard to believing anyone working in these organizations can be trusted to be forthcoming, in regard to the truth about Alcor’s and/or SA’s activities and/or capabilities.
For example, Dr. Wowk writes, "SA in fact contracts with professional perfusionists and surgeons." Why did Dr. Wowk leave out the fact that none of these people are guaranteed to show up for cases? When I was working at SA, they had a contract with a group of paramedics, too. That contract involved the paramedic group receiving a monthly retainer and extremely generous compensation for showing up for training sessions, but did not require them to show up for actual cryonics cases, a situation that resulted in SA sending three laymen, with no medical experience whatsoever, to perform (botch) their procedures. On the Cold Filter forum, Steve Harris informed us the perfusion group SA contracts with, costs them a bundle. Not only does SA pay for the perfusionists, but they lease some very expensive equipment from the perfusion group. Mathew Sullivan verified, (also on the Cold Filter forum) that, like the paramedics, the perfusionists are not required to show up for cases, unless they are available, (meaning they are not needed for conventional medical procedures, when SA calls them). In my opinion, contracted medical professionals, who are not obligated to attend cases, are nothing more than “window dressing".
If SA has qualified surgeons available, as Dr. Wowk claims, why was historical cryonics figure, Curtis Henderson kept at relatively warm temperatures, for MANY hours, and subjected to numerous incisions, last year, by SA’s manager, Catherine Baldwin, who is not a physician, much less a surgeon, (though she falsely referred to herself in SA’s published case report as a “surgeon”)? It seems she couldn't even FIND, much less cannulate, some of the largest blood vessels in the human body. (Afterward, someone from SA's perfusion group said, to me, "You were right, they can't do a cannulation.") I’m sure Dr. Wowk is aware of that case, and an Alcor case, which occurred at about the same time, in which another SA pseudo-surgeon, (someone who is also NOT a physician, much less a surgeon), is said to have cut well into the abdomen of an Alcor member, while attempting to perform a femoral cannulation. Is Dr. Wowk not aware that two of SA’s “surgeons,” (who, again, are NOT physicians, at all), butchered these two people, just last year, while trying to perform vascular cannulations, for SA?
SA’s contracted perfusionists did show up for each of those cases, but a perfusionist without a surgeon to perform the cannulation is basically useless. SA might as well have taken along the usual laymen to perform perfusion, since they didn’t have anyone to perform a proper vascular cannulation. It’s pretty meaningless, (and even deceptive), for Dr. Wowk to be claiming SA has “professional perfusionists and surgeons,” when there is no guarantee either will show up for a case, and one is no good without the other. The truth is, NOT ONE staff member of Suspended Animation, or Alcor, is a medical professional qualified to perform vascular cannulations or perfusion, the two medical procedures required to deliver cryonics washout and/or vitrification solutions...the procedures for which SA and Alcor charge $60,000 to $200,000.
Does it make sense to Dr. Wowk, for two companies, (each with a seven-figure annual budget), said to be in the business of delivering medical procedures that require competently-performed vascular cannulations and perfusion, to have staffs of six-to-ten persons, each, without either one having even ONE staff member professionally-qualified to perform the medical services they are selling, with price tags up to $200,000? Why is it the self-proclaimed “world leader” of cryonics, and the company that seems to be their primary standby team, don't have competent, qualified personnel, but contract with professionals who are not guaranteed to show up, instead? (Note that there were no contracts with professional perfusionists, prior to harsh public criticisms of allowing laymen to perform these procedures.)
I believe Dr. Wowk’s comment, in regard to someone attempting to “sabotage” SA’s relationship with their contracted perfusionists, is a reference to me. Perhaps Dr. Wowk does not know that I was acquainted with one of the leaders of that perfusion group, for quite a few years, prior to SA contracting with them. If one of Dr. Wowk's peers, someone he was acquainted with, was to be placed in a potentially career-damaging position, would Dr. Wowk not apprise them of the situation? Perhaps Dr. Wowk does not know that it was I, who first suggested SA contract with that same group, (a suggestion that was shot down, when I made it, back in 2006). Dr. Wowk certainly does not know that, even if I had been happily employed at SA, at the time the perfusion group was contracted, I would have made full disclosure of the situation, to them. I would have warned them they might show up for cases and not have anyone to perform the needed cannulations, because that would have been the professional thing to do. I would also have warned them that there had been a lot of scandal associated with cryonics, and expressed my concerns regarding certain issues related to cryonics procedures, (such as issues related to SA's medications, and state laws regarding performing procedures on the deceased). Finally, I would have asked their permission to post their company name on the SA website, before placing it there, something Catherine Baldwin failed to do. (After I informed the group their company name was listed on the SA website, (ironically, while SA was not willing to disclose the identities of their own staff members), the perfusion group requested their name be removed from the site.) Dr. Wowk can call my gestures “sabotage,” if he likes, but those professionals deserved to know the truth about what they were getting into, and Catherine Baldwin should have been the one to inform them. I wrote about my communication with SA’s perfusionists, here: http://cryomedical.blogspot.com/2009/11/suspended-animations-perfusionists.html
Dr. Wowk remarks that “Alcor's Chief Medical Advisor, Steven B. Harris, MD, has sat on the Editorial Board of Skeptic magazine for many years and is respected for his contributions to scientific skepticism.” Steve Harris is the head of another secretive LEF-funded organization, Critical Care Research (CCR). The last known staff members of CCR, (a company that receives nearly a million dollars a year in funding, from the same company that funds SA and 21stCM), were Harris and three of his family members. Harris has publicly distributed a mountain of questionable medical advice, and doled out numerous blatant lies, in attempts to defend the companies his benefactors fund. I’ve written about him, extensively, on this blog. (Check the index, on the right side of the page.) I think Dr. Wowk will understand why I am unimpressed, though I'm guessing he hoped other readers would be. Anyone of reasonable intelligence, and having general knowledge of perfusion procedures, and being aware of some of Harris' many bizarre responses to my criticisms of Alcor and SA's perfusion procedures, would be skeptical of Harris.
Until recently, I had a fairly high regard for Dr. Wowk’s integrity, but in my opinion, he’s starting to look like someone fairly close to the hub of a well-oiled propaganda-spewing machine.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Cryonics Cranks and Crackpots
I'm not really surprised when people I consider to be intelligent continue to hold Michael "Mike Darwin" Federowicz up as some sort of cryonics icon, but I am dismayed. He puts on a good show, spewing out medical terminology like there's no tomorrow, but any valid information he spews forth almost always comes from the works of others, in conventional medicine. The cryonics audience seems to frequently overlook the fact that someone who regurgitates known scientific information, is not responsible for establishing it, and most often cannot be relied upon to build on it! On top of that, his audience is mostly comprised of laymen, (people unfamiliar with perfusion and hypothermic procedures), who will not recognize his mistakes. Federowicz is a quack, a crank, a liar, and perhaps much worse than that; if you ask me, people like him are the primary reason most REAL scientists and medical professionals are reluctant to be associated with cryonics.
Federowicz recently wrote:
"It is certainly true that some cryopatients unequivocally benefit from aggressive reperfusion with ventilation as evidenced by return of good tissue perfusion and even the return of neocortical electrical activity (and if un-medicated, return of consciousness)."
http://www.depressedmetabolism.com/mike-darwin-on-anoxic-cps/
Is that true? Did some of the persons undergoing cryopreservation efforts exhibit "the return of neocortical electrical activity and if un-medicated, return of consciousness"??? If they did experience a "return of consciousness," were they given an injection to make them "legally" (or, perhaps, "illegally") dead, again? (There have been public accusations of the illegal euthanization of people undergoing cryonics procedures, and some of the Johnson tapes do seem to be of Alcor personnel discussing more than one such incident.)
The truth is, Federowicz cannot prove "...cryopatients unequivocally benefit from aggressive reperfusion with ventilation..." It's easy for Federowicz and his peers to make such grandiose claims, because their human experiments have no outcomes. They perform their little poorly-designed, poorly-executed experiments; drop the subjects in liquid nitrogen vapor; and then there's never any outcomes by which people can judge the efficacy of their procedures.
In the same article, Federowicz goes on to write:
"What is really needed is systematic research in truly relevant animal models (i.e., following cardiac arrest from sepsis, hypovolemia in the setting of systemic inflammation, prolonged hypoxia, and so on) to determine if anoxic (closed chest) CPS can be made workable or even superior to CPS with ventilation."
Mr. Federowicz would probably like nothing more than to have someone fund more cryonics animal experiments, where an unqualified person, such as himself, could play doctor, subjecting even more than the >1,000 dogs he claims to have already experimented on, to painful, mostly pointless and unproductive, experimentation.
In 30 - 40 years of "cryonics research," what have Mr. Federowicz and his peers contributed to hypothermic medicine? What have they contributed to cryonics, other than a bad reputation? What, exactly, have cryonics dog experiments accomplished? Were Federowicz' and/or Steve Harris' dog experiments reliable, and have they been of any value, whatsoever, to the advancement of hypothermic medicine?
I can't imagine anyone being under the impression that Federowicz should be someone to advise on developing "systematic research." Whom have Federowicz and his peers impressed, other than cryonicists, (an audience comprised mostly of young laypersons, who are easily taken in by some crank, like Federowicz, spewing forth medical terminology)? There is a plethora of ongoing research experiments being carried out by reputable scientists and clinicians, exploring the topics of perfusion and hypothermic medicine, and the cryonics community continues to look for advice from the likes of Federowicz?
Michael "Mike Darwin" Federowicz may be an "expert" in the eyes of some cryonicists, but I think that's mostly due to the relative ignorance of his audience, his shameless self-promotion and that of his cryonics peers. "Cryonics experts," for the most part, are a small self-serving group, who specialize in "smoke and mirrors."
People should have recognized Federowicz for what he is, by now. Amongst other things, he is someone who would blatantly lie about being a board-eligible perfusionist, when he most certainly knows he never met the requirments to make such a claim. A hospice nurse claims Federowicz also lied to him about being a nurse, and Federowicz has referred to himself as a "surgeon," in numerous cryonics case reports. I believe this constitutes a felony, in some states, and is possibly a violation of federal law. Federowicz has never been a board-eligible perfusionist, or a nurse, and he is not a physician, at all, much less a surgeon. His only formal medical training, as far as I know, is as a dialysis technician. If the cryonics organizations want to rely on self-proclaimed experts and laymen "doing the best they can," let them label those persons as such.
Federowicz recently wrote:
"It is certainly true that some cryopatients unequivocally benefit from aggressive reperfusion with ventilation as evidenced by return of good tissue perfusion and even the return of neocortical electrical activity (and if un-medicated, return of consciousness)."
http://www.depressedmetabolism.com/mike-darwin-on-anoxic-cps/
Is that true? Did some of the persons undergoing cryopreservation efforts exhibit "the return of neocortical electrical activity and if un-medicated, return of consciousness"??? If they did experience a "return of consciousness," were they given an injection to make them "legally" (or, perhaps, "illegally") dead, again? (There have been public accusations of the illegal euthanization of people undergoing cryonics procedures, and some of the Johnson tapes do seem to be of Alcor personnel discussing more than one such incident.)
The truth is, Federowicz cannot prove "...cryopatients unequivocally benefit from aggressive reperfusion with ventilation..." It's easy for Federowicz and his peers to make such grandiose claims, because their human experiments have no outcomes. They perform their little poorly-designed, poorly-executed experiments; drop the subjects in liquid nitrogen vapor; and then there's never any outcomes by which people can judge the efficacy of their procedures.
In the same article, Federowicz goes on to write:
"What is really needed is systematic research in truly relevant animal models (i.e., following cardiac arrest from sepsis, hypovolemia in the setting of systemic inflammation, prolonged hypoxia, and so on) to determine if anoxic (closed chest) CPS can be made workable or even superior to CPS with ventilation."
Mr. Federowicz would probably like nothing more than to have someone fund more cryonics animal experiments, where an unqualified person, such as himself, could play doctor, subjecting even more than the >1,000 dogs he claims to have already experimented on, to painful, mostly pointless and unproductive, experimentation.
In 30 - 40 years of "cryonics research," what have Mr. Federowicz and his peers contributed to hypothermic medicine? What have they contributed to cryonics, other than a bad reputation? What, exactly, have cryonics dog experiments accomplished? Were Federowicz' and/or Steve Harris' dog experiments reliable, and have they been of any value, whatsoever, to the advancement of hypothermic medicine?
I can't imagine anyone being under the impression that Federowicz should be someone to advise on developing "systematic research." Whom have Federowicz and his peers impressed, other than cryonicists, (an audience comprised mostly of young laypersons, who are easily taken in by some crank, like Federowicz, spewing forth medical terminology)? There is a plethora of ongoing research experiments being carried out by reputable scientists and clinicians, exploring the topics of perfusion and hypothermic medicine, and the cryonics community continues to look for advice from the likes of Federowicz?
Michael "Mike Darwin" Federowicz may be an "expert" in the eyes of some cryonicists, but I think that's mostly due to the relative ignorance of his audience, his shameless self-promotion and that of his cryonics peers. "Cryonics experts," for the most part, are a small self-serving group, who specialize in "smoke and mirrors."
People should have recognized Federowicz for what he is, by now. Amongst other things, he is someone who would blatantly lie about being a board-eligible perfusionist, when he most certainly knows he never met the requirments to make such a claim. A hospice nurse claims Federowicz also lied to him about being a nurse, and Federowicz has referred to himself as a "surgeon," in numerous cryonics case reports. I believe this constitutes a felony, in some states, and is possibly a violation of federal law. Federowicz has never been a board-eligible perfusionist, or a nurse, and he is not a physician, at all, much less a surgeon. His only formal medical training, as far as I know, is as a dialysis technician. If the cryonics organizations want to rely on self-proclaimed experts and laymen "doing the best they can," let them label those persons as such.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Alcor's Glaring Self-Contradiction
Alcor Life Extension Foundation calls the residents of the Dewars "patients," yet they collected these patients, under the "Uniform Anatomical Gift Act" (UAGA). If you ask me, those people cannot be both "patients" AND "brain donors." So, which one is it???
Living donors can donate a lot of things, including a kidney, a lobe of their liver, a lung, part of the pancreas, part of the intestine, bone marrow, blood, stem cells, and more, but they cannot donate their brains. The people in the Dewars are "donors," not "patients." As donors, I believe they can be pulled out of those Dewars, and any time, and subjected to any slice-and-dice experiment Alcor wants to subject them to, unlike CI's members, who are protected by the same regulations that govern Michgan's cemeteries.
On September 11, 2010 Alcor's Executive Director, Jennfer Chapman, referred to Mr. Orville Richardson, (someone who had been dead and buried, for more than a year, before Alcor dug him up and put him in the Dewar), as "Alcor's 99th patient." If Mr. Richardson is Alcor's patient, I would like to know who is his physician of record. I'm serious...I want to know. On a humorous note, I'd also be interested in his treatment plan and prognosis! Mr. Richardson is NOT a patient...he is a corpse, and most likely a severely-decayed one, at that.
In the same report, Ms. Chapman also wrote:
"My recent efforts have largely focused on developing a budget and budget balancing strategies to address the nearly $400,000 deficit Alcor will face in 2011 and 2012, should it receive no income from cases. Although it is unlikely that there will be no cases in a given year, it is Alcor’s tradition to prepare for the worst case scenario. Due to the unpredictable nature of cryonics caseloads, we start with a baseline assumption that no cases will occur. The deficit we face is only partially due to expiration of the grant. Even in 2010, Alcor would have experienced a deficit were it not for case income." http://www.alcor.org/blog/?p=333#more-333
In the same report, Ms. Chapman also indicates Alcor has been somewhat dependent on the "LEF/Miller/Thorp Grant," since 2008, (which I believe was $450K a year, for three years), and notes that grant will expire in June 2011.
What happens if Alcor goes bankrupt, and is not be able to care for their cryogenically-suspended members? Certainly local regulatory agencies would have some sort of requirements, for disposing of their deceased residents, but would Alcor have any legal obligation to the families of those people? Some of those people paid $150,000, (and more, in the way of membership dues, etc.), to be preserved there, and I've heard of significant bequests being left to Alcor. Would these Alcor members, and their families, simply be "out in the warm," without any recourse, if Alcor were to fail?
Has Alcor accomplished anything, with their rash of recent, protracted legal battles, other than garnering a lot of negative publicity, and placing a huge financial drain on their already-tenuous budget? Who will protect the brain donors, Alcor calls "patients," if Alcor cannot, in the future?
Living donors can donate a lot of things, including a kidney, a lobe of their liver, a lung, part of the pancreas, part of the intestine, bone marrow, blood, stem cells, and more, but they cannot donate their brains. The people in the Dewars are "donors," not "patients." As donors, I believe they can be pulled out of those Dewars, and any time, and subjected to any slice-and-dice experiment Alcor wants to subject them to, unlike CI's members, who are protected by the same regulations that govern Michgan's cemeteries.
On September 11, 2010 Alcor's Executive Director, Jennfer Chapman, referred to Mr. Orville Richardson, (someone who had been dead and buried, for more than a year, before Alcor dug him up and put him in the Dewar), as "Alcor's 99th patient." If Mr. Richardson is Alcor's patient, I would like to know who is his physician of record. I'm serious...I want to know. On a humorous note, I'd also be interested in his treatment plan and prognosis! Mr. Richardson is NOT a patient...he is a corpse, and most likely a severely-decayed one, at that.
In the same report, Ms. Chapman also wrote:
"My recent efforts have largely focused on developing a budget and budget balancing strategies to address the nearly $400,000 deficit Alcor will face in 2011 and 2012, should it receive no income from cases. Although it is unlikely that there will be no cases in a given year, it is Alcor’s tradition to prepare for the worst case scenario. Due to the unpredictable nature of cryonics caseloads, we start with a baseline assumption that no cases will occur. The deficit we face is only partially due to expiration of the grant. Even in 2010, Alcor would have experienced a deficit were it not for case income." http://www.alcor.org/blog/?p=333#more-333
In the same report, Ms. Chapman also indicates Alcor has been somewhat dependent on the "LEF/Miller/Thorp Grant," since 2008, (which I believe was $450K a year, for three years), and notes that grant will expire in June 2011.
What happens if Alcor goes bankrupt, and is not be able to care for their cryogenically-suspended members? Certainly local regulatory agencies would have some sort of requirements, for disposing of their deceased residents, but would Alcor have any legal obligation to the families of those people? Some of those people paid $150,000, (and more, in the way of membership dues, etc.), to be preserved there, and I've heard of significant bequests being left to Alcor. Would these Alcor members, and their families, simply be "out in the warm," without any recourse, if Alcor were to fail?
Has Alcor accomplished anything, with their rash of recent, protracted legal battles, other than garnering a lot of negative publicity, and placing a huge financial drain on their already-tenuous budget? Who will protect the brain donors, Alcor calls "patients," if Alcor cannot, in the future?
Friday, November 5, 2010
Alcor's Spin Doctors
Alcor recently issued a public statement, regarding the deposition of Larry Johnson. In response, an anonymous person on the Cold Filter forum claimed Mr. Johnson is "digging himself in deeper," because he asserted his Fifth Amendment rights, during the deposition. Is he? Hopefully, Mr. Johnson was following an attorney's advice, when he invoked the Fifth, (during a deposition, not a court hearing). The same person, writes "so much for the huge embarrassment, speculated by some here in the past, to Alcor, if these matters were aired in court." I still think Alcor will suffer a HUGE, perhaps devastating, embarrassment, if "these matters," (the conversations on those tapes), are aired in a court of law, (which they have not been).
I'm perplexed as to why Alcor continues to make public statements about this matter, before the NY case is over, and even more amazed they published questions and answers from the recent deposition. If I was Johnson's attorney, (I'm not an attorney, at all), I would respond by deposing the people who are alleged to be speaking on the tapes Johnson has, and publish their answers. Just think of it...
Question to Alcor Staff Member X: "Mr. X, is that your voice saying to Larry Johnson, "He killed her?"" And if the answer is "Yes,"... "To whom were you referring to, in regard to both the alleged murderer and the alleged victim?"
I could come up with thousands of embarrassing questions, for Alcor staff members, (both past and present), but I'm not interested in playing that game. Johnson et. al.'s attorneys should keep in mind that at least one person who allegedly discussed being involved in at least one illegal euthanasia still works at Alcor. If those tapes are legitimate, (and I, personally, believe they are), Alcor has had staff members who were either actually present when a certain cryonics superstar is said to have performed an illegal euthanasia, or who are psychologically-disturbed individuals who want to pretend they were involved in an illegal euthanasia.
Alcor gloats, "During deposition, Larry Johnson invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 300 times to avoid incriminating himself."
I'm just curious...Who, in that room, did not figure out that Mr. Johnson was not going to answer any questions, after the first 40, or 50? Seriously. Were Alcor's attorneys in control of the length of the deposition? How much do they get paid per hour? How much did Mr. Johnson have to pay his attorney, per hour? Is the goal of this legal battle to get to the truth, or to see who runs out of money, first? (And, for those of you who still think Johnson did this for the money, the court document reports that "over 33,000 copies of the book have been distributed." The cost of his legal battles probably exceeded any money he made, from the book, in the first few months!)
I think Alcor is hoping people will overlook the fact that Alcor cannot really "win" anything, in a hearing regarding Johnson et. al.'s "Motions to Dismiss," other than the right to proceed to trial with their claims. On the other hand, Johnson et. al. did succeed in having some of Alcor's claims thrown out of court.
My favorite part of the Alcor news brief was:
"On October 29, 2010, the New York court denied a motion to dismiss filed by Mr. Johnson. The court would only dismiss for now the "conversion" claim against Mr. Johnson for technical reasons, leaving claims for defamation and other causes of action intact."
http://www.alcor.org/press/response.html
The "technical reason" was that Alcor's allegations were "insufficient to state a claim for conversion as a matter of law," so their claim was dismissed.
Here are some highlights from the recent NY ruling, on Johnson et. al.'s "Motions to Dismiss:"
"In its opposition, Alcor appears to have abandoned its breach of contract claim with respect to the NDA."
"Accordingly, as a matter of law, Alcor has no ground to assert a breach of contract claim based on the Employee Handbook."
The judge leaves Alcor's claims for "Breach of Agreements and Judgment" in regard to the handwritten agreement, and their claim for "Breach of Fiduciary Duty" intact. (That doesn't mean Alcor "wins," only that those claims may proceed to trial.)
"Accordingly, Alcor fails to state a tortious interference with contract against Baldyga."
"According, Alcor's claim for aiding and abetting misappropriation of trade secrets must be dismissed."
The court did not rule on Alcor's status, as a public figure, something that may determine the outcome of a lot of the claims against Johnson et. al.
(From Alcor's statement: "Claims for defamation and other causes of action, including aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty, against Vanguard Press and Scott Baldyga will also continue forward in New York.")
I have been busy with other things, and may not have even noticed the court documents, if not for Alcor's public statement. If Alcor is going to publish self-serving statements, appearing to be "cherry-picking" favorable court decisions, while leaving their members, and potential members, mostly in the dark, regarding their defeats, I feel compelled to comment.
I'm perplexed as to why Alcor continues to make public statements about this matter, before the NY case is over, and even more amazed they published questions and answers from the recent deposition. If I was Johnson's attorney, (I'm not an attorney, at all), I would respond by deposing the people who are alleged to be speaking on the tapes Johnson has, and publish their answers. Just think of it...
Question to Alcor Staff Member X: "Mr. X, is that your voice saying to Larry Johnson, "He killed her?"" And if the answer is "Yes,"... "To whom were you referring to, in regard to both the alleged murderer and the alleged victim?"
I could come up with thousands of embarrassing questions, for Alcor staff members, (both past and present), but I'm not interested in playing that game. Johnson et. al.'s attorneys should keep in mind that at least one person who allegedly discussed being involved in at least one illegal euthanasia still works at Alcor. If those tapes are legitimate, (and I, personally, believe they are), Alcor has had staff members who were either actually present when a certain cryonics superstar is said to have performed an illegal euthanasia, or who are psychologically-disturbed individuals who want to pretend they were involved in an illegal euthanasia.
Alcor gloats, "During deposition, Larry Johnson invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 300 times to avoid incriminating himself."
I'm just curious...Who, in that room, did not figure out that Mr. Johnson was not going to answer any questions, after the first 40, or 50? Seriously. Were Alcor's attorneys in control of the length of the deposition? How much do they get paid per hour? How much did Mr. Johnson have to pay his attorney, per hour? Is the goal of this legal battle to get to the truth, or to see who runs out of money, first? (And, for those of you who still think Johnson did this for the money, the court document reports that "over 33,000 copies of the book have been distributed." The cost of his legal battles probably exceeded any money he made, from the book, in the first few months!)
I think Alcor is hoping people will overlook the fact that Alcor cannot really "win" anything, in a hearing regarding Johnson et. al.'s "Motions to Dismiss," other than the right to proceed to trial with their claims. On the other hand, Johnson et. al. did succeed in having some of Alcor's claims thrown out of court.
My favorite part of the Alcor news brief was:
"On October 29, 2010, the New York court denied a motion to dismiss filed by Mr. Johnson. The court would only dismiss for now the "conversion" claim against Mr. Johnson for technical reasons, leaving claims for defamation and other causes of action intact."
http://www.alcor.org/press/response.html
The "technical reason" was that Alcor's allegations were "insufficient to state a claim for conversion as a matter of law," so their claim was dismissed.
Here are some highlights from the recent NY ruling, on Johnson et. al.'s "Motions to Dismiss:"
"In its opposition, Alcor appears to have abandoned its breach of contract claim with respect to the NDA."
"Accordingly, as a matter of law, Alcor has no ground to assert a breach of contract claim based on the Employee Handbook."
The judge leaves Alcor's claims for "Breach of Agreements and Judgment" in regard to the handwritten agreement, and their claim for "Breach of Fiduciary Duty" intact. (That doesn't mean Alcor "wins," only that those claims may proceed to trial.)
"Accordingly, Alcor fails to state a tortious interference with contract against Baldyga."
"According, Alcor's claim for aiding and abetting misappropriation of trade secrets must be dismissed."
The court did not rule on Alcor's status, as a public figure, something that may determine the outcome of a lot of the claims against Johnson et. al.
(From Alcor's statement: "Claims for defamation and other causes of action, including aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty, against Vanguard Press and Scott Baldyga will also continue forward in New York.")
I have been busy with other things, and may not have even noticed the court documents, if not for Alcor's public statement. If Alcor is going to publish self-serving statements, appearing to be "cherry-picking" favorable court decisions, while leaving their members, and potential members, mostly in the dark, regarding their defeats, I feel compelled to comment.
The court documents can be found here: http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/webcivil/FCASMain (Do an index search for case # 113938/2009.)
***This post may be updated (added to) in the near future. I've wasted enough time blogging about cryonics, this morning.***
Monday, October 25, 2010
Why I Believe Cryonics Should be Regulated
About four-and-a-half years ago, I stumbled into the world of cryonics. It was a cosmic accident, of sorts; I REALLY needed a job, and there was an ad on Monster.com, for a position at an alleged research company, doing something related to perfusion. The company turned out to be Suspended Animation, a cryonics facility located very near my home, so I forwarded my resume. When I answered the ad, I was told the position, (a management position), had already been filled, but they were interested in my perfusion background, so they invited me to do some consulting work. I was told SA's "research" mostly consisted of building equipment for performing cryopreservations, and was assured all their activities were perfectly legal.
Having participated in surgical procedures, which require cooling people to a state of "death," for short periods of time, for certain repairs to the aorta, I probably find the notion of cryonics a little less bizarre than most. On top of that, I truly believe people should have their last wishes carried out, if at all possible and legal, no matter what those of us left behind want for them. I accepted the consulting work, which mostly consisted of answering their questions about perfusion, and building some very simple perfusion circuits. A short time later, I was offered a very well-compensated fulltime position, which I also accepted. It was a mere five months, before I walked away, in total disgust.
Fairly early on, it became clear to me that these people were simply trying to build equipment for performing procedures, which are fundamentally the same as procedures that have been performed in heart surgery for many decades. Suspended Animation wanted to gain vascular access, and replace the blood of their recently-deceased clients, (people who had made arrangements for cryopreservation), with an organ preservation solution, while cooling them down to near zero degrees Celsius. After that, they were to transport the bodies to another cryonics facility, (either Cryonics Institute in Michigan, or Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona), where the bodies would be perfused with a cryopreservative solution, and cooled to cryogenic temperatures, before being placed in storage.
When I tried to convince my manager that the equipment SA needed to perform these procedures already existed, I was met with a tremendous amount of resistance. I wanted to believe that person was simply ignorant of vascular cannulations and perfusion and the related equipment, but it was impossible to believe that, for very long. It soon became quite clear to me that he did not want to use existing equipment because the "research" we were doing was the construction of HIS designs. Not only were his designs vastly inferior to existing equipment, but they were exponentially more expensive than existing equipment, due to the man-hours involved. He was easily making six figures, and he was paying several people, very generously, to assist him with his "R&D" projects, none of which would have made sense to anyone familiar with the medical procedures SA was trying to deliver. (He was also engaging in adolescent, manipulative behaviors, such as asking his employees to spy on one another, and coercing them into allowing him to use their email addresses, to support his own projects and further his political agendas.)
At first, I was unaware of the amount of money involved, so when I was told SA couldn't buy certain equipment, or hire qualified personnel, because such things were "too expensive," I believed those lies. Later, I found out Suspended Animation was receiving over a million dollars a year, from Life Extension Foundation (LEF) / Saul Kent and Bill Faloon. Others at Suspended Animation agreed with me, that the many of the projects were a ridiculous waste of time and money, but at least two of them encouraged me to "play along," so we could all keep collecting our very generous salaries. It's hard to blame them, for wanting that. We could come and go, as we pleased, or sit at our desks playing on the Internet all day, and no one would complain...at least not for so long as we didn't object to the mind-bendingly ridiculous design and fabrication projects, going on in the workshop.
When I left Suspended Animation, I left believing Mr. Kent and Mr. Faloon were the victims of a con artist, who had a few very generously-paid puppets supporting him...that IS truly what I believed. Mr. Faloon had never set foot in the facility, while I was there, and I think Mr. Kent had only visited three, or four, times, usually just for a few hours. I tried to walk away and not look back, but four months after my resignation, I decided I could not sit by, in silence, while a group of laymen, armed with "garage project" equipment, tried to charge $60,000 for procedures, which are normally performed by vascular surgeons and perfusionists, (even if the recipients were already dead). It was "false advertising" in the very least, in my opinion.
I began writing about SA's activities, on the Internet, thinking people in the cryonics community would be appalled, and something would be done about the activities at the small facility, in Boynton Beach, Florida. Imagine my surprise, when someone with the initials "MD" after his name, (someone on the opposite coast of this country, someone who had never worked with me), defended that organization by posting a number of blatant, vicious lies about my activities there. This physician is someone who has been performing surgical experiments for cryonics purposes, on dogs, for many years. His co-workers, at Critical Care Research, in Rancho Cucamonga, California, are said to be three of his family members and they, too, are funded by LEF / Mr. Kent and Mr. Faloon. According to LEF's Form 990s, CCR received in excess of $900,000, in 2008. This person, someone who did not hesitate to publish vicious lies about a medical professional he had never met, (and sees no harm in placing dangerous general anesthetic drugs, such as propofol, in the hands of laymen he does not know), has been earning a bundle, working in cryonics, for many years. He has been caught in numerous lies and mistakes, regarding the procedures Alcor and Suspended Animation are attempting to perform. There's more like him...not physicians, but others who seem willing to misrepresent their capabilities and deceive the public, in exchange for salaries and benefits most REAL medical professionals will never see.
It is no longer possible for me to believe what I witnessed was an isolated bit of corruption, and the picture gets bigger, by the year. It's also no longer possible for me to think of Mr. Kent and Mr. Faloon as victims; they can't possibly be THAT blind to what goes on at their organizations. Just recently, Mr. Kent has been associated with a new push to market cryonics in Europe, with the leader of that effort being a silly young man who has held positions of power in the Church of Satan, and the Temple of Vampires. The new cryonics "leader," someone who seems to be supported by Saul Kent and Ben Best, is not a medical professional, or a scientist, but a known cult member in organizations thought, by most, to be nothing more than pyramid schemes? That's beyond ridiculous, and it makes it VERY hard to believe Mr. Kent, Mr. Best and their peers are actually interested in advancing the science of hypothermic medicine.
For forty years, cryonics "research" has primarily consisted of laymen attempting to build equipment that already exists, and laymen trying to train other laymen how to perform the tasks of paramedics, perfusionists, and vascular surgeons...much of this time with the benefactors having ample funding to provide the real thing, in regard to both equipment and personnel. Organizations such as Alcor and Suspended Animation, which want to charge $60,000 to $150,000, (not to mention other extra charges, or years worth of membership dues), are not capable of preserving brains and/or bodies in a condition likely to be viable in the future. People associated with these companies, have been known to encourage people, not only to leave hefty life insurance policies with their organizations listed as the beneficiaries, to pay for these amateur surgical procedures, but to leave their estates and irrevocable trusts to cryonics organizations.
Some cryonicists make the seemingly-valid argument that people like Saul Kent and Bill Faloon contribute MILLIONS of dollars, each year, to cryonics organization, with no return. To be honest, I really can't figure it out, but something is seriously wrong with two allegedly-stellar businessmen, to be funding what appears to be mostly a scam. Then, again, the "tipping point" to earn money, at those prices, (not to mention the donations of irrevocable trusts, and bequests), must be relatively low. My guess is, even a small percentage of the funerary business must be worth exponentially more than they have been putting into their cryonics ventures.
Again, I have no problem with people receiving their last wishes. If people want to be cryopreserved, I think they should have that right. BUT...companies should not be allowed to deceive people who wish to be cryopreserved. They should not be allowed to publish photos of what looks like medical professionals performing surgery, but in actuality, is a group of laymen playing doctor with a dead body...people whose incompetency will result in their clients being left warm (and decaying), for many hours while they struggle to perform a vascular cannulation, or people whose brains will be underperfused or turned to mush, by laymen who have no idea how to properly and safely operate a perfusion circuit. Cryonics companies should not be allowed to refer to laymen as "Chief Surgeon," "Surgeon," "Perfusionist," when these people hold no medical credentials. IT'S FRAUDULENT.
It is time for legislators, (both here, in the US, and abroad), to recognize cryonics scams, and to restrict laymen from performing surgical procedures on dead bodies, (I don't know why licensed embalmers, (other than those in the State of Michigan), haven't already done something about this. Maybe the numbers just aren't big enough to worry them, yet.) It's also time for regulators to sanction medical personnel who enable laymen to have access to dangerous prescription medications, and engage in other unethical activities, related to cryonics. It's time...it's past time.
Having participated in surgical procedures, which require cooling people to a state of "death," for short periods of time, for certain repairs to the aorta, I probably find the notion of cryonics a little less bizarre than most. On top of that, I truly believe people should have their last wishes carried out, if at all possible and legal, no matter what those of us left behind want for them. I accepted the consulting work, which mostly consisted of answering their questions about perfusion, and building some very simple perfusion circuits. A short time later, I was offered a very well-compensated fulltime position, which I also accepted. It was a mere five months, before I walked away, in total disgust.
Fairly early on, it became clear to me that these people were simply trying to build equipment for performing procedures, which are fundamentally the same as procedures that have been performed in heart surgery for many decades. Suspended Animation wanted to gain vascular access, and replace the blood of their recently-deceased clients, (people who had made arrangements for cryopreservation), with an organ preservation solution, while cooling them down to near zero degrees Celsius. After that, they were to transport the bodies to another cryonics facility, (either Cryonics Institute in Michigan, or Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona), where the bodies would be perfused with a cryopreservative solution, and cooled to cryogenic temperatures, before being placed in storage.
When I tried to convince my manager that the equipment SA needed to perform these procedures already existed, I was met with a tremendous amount of resistance. I wanted to believe that person was simply ignorant of vascular cannulations and perfusion and the related equipment, but it was impossible to believe that, for very long. It soon became quite clear to me that he did not want to use existing equipment because the "research" we were doing was the construction of HIS designs. Not only were his designs vastly inferior to existing equipment, but they were exponentially more expensive than existing equipment, due to the man-hours involved. He was easily making six figures, and he was paying several people, very generously, to assist him with his "R&D" projects, none of which would have made sense to anyone familiar with the medical procedures SA was trying to deliver. (He was also engaging in adolescent, manipulative behaviors, such as asking his employees to spy on one another, and coercing them into allowing him to use their email addresses, to support his own projects and further his political agendas.)
At first, I was unaware of the amount of money involved, so when I was told SA couldn't buy certain equipment, or hire qualified personnel, because such things were "too expensive," I believed those lies. Later, I found out Suspended Animation was receiving over a million dollars a year, from Life Extension Foundation (LEF) / Saul Kent and Bill Faloon. Others at Suspended Animation agreed with me, that the many of the projects were a ridiculous waste of time and money, but at least two of them encouraged me to "play along," so we could all keep collecting our very generous salaries. It's hard to blame them, for wanting that. We could come and go, as we pleased, or sit at our desks playing on the Internet all day, and no one would complain...at least not for so long as we didn't object to the mind-bendingly ridiculous design and fabrication projects, going on in the workshop.
When I left Suspended Animation, I left believing Mr. Kent and Mr. Faloon were the victims of a con artist, who had a few very generously-paid puppets supporting him...that IS truly what I believed. Mr. Faloon had never set foot in the facility, while I was there, and I think Mr. Kent had only visited three, or four, times, usually just for a few hours. I tried to walk away and not look back, but four months after my resignation, I decided I could not sit by, in silence, while a group of laymen, armed with "garage project" equipment, tried to charge $60,000 for procedures, which are normally performed by vascular surgeons and perfusionists, (even if the recipients were already dead). It was "false advertising" in the very least, in my opinion.
I began writing about SA's activities, on the Internet, thinking people in the cryonics community would be appalled, and something would be done about the activities at the small facility, in Boynton Beach, Florida. Imagine my surprise, when someone with the initials "MD" after his name, (someone on the opposite coast of this country, someone who had never worked with me), defended that organization by posting a number of blatant, vicious lies about my activities there. This physician is someone who has been performing surgical experiments for cryonics purposes, on dogs, for many years. His co-workers, at Critical Care Research, in Rancho Cucamonga, California, are said to be three of his family members and they, too, are funded by LEF / Mr. Kent and Mr. Faloon. According to LEF's Form 990s, CCR received in excess of $900,000, in 2008. This person, someone who did not hesitate to publish vicious lies about a medical professional he had never met, (and sees no harm in placing dangerous general anesthetic drugs, such as propofol, in the hands of laymen he does not know), has been earning a bundle, working in cryonics, for many years. He has been caught in numerous lies and mistakes, regarding the procedures Alcor and Suspended Animation are attempting to perform. There's more like him...not physicians, but others who seem willing to misrepresent their capabilities and deceive the public, in exchange for salaries and benefits most REAL medical professionals will never see.
It is no longer possible for me to believe what I witnessed was an isolated bit of corruption, and the picture gets bigger, by the year. It's also no longer possible for me to think of Mr. Kent and Mr. Faloon as victims; they can't possibly be THAT blind to what goes on at their organizations. Just recently, Mr. Kent has been associated with a new push to market cryonics in Europe, with the leader of that effort being a silly young man who has held positions of power in the Church of Satan, and the Temple of Vampires. The new cryonics "leader," someone who seems to be supported by Saul Kent and Ben Best, is not a medical professional, or a scientist, but a known cult member in organizations thought, by most, to be nothing more than pyramid schemes? That's beyond ridiculous, and it makes it VERY hard to believe Mr. Kent, Mr. Best and their peers are actually interested in advancing the science of hypothermic medicine.
For forty years, cryonics "research" has primarily consisted of laymen attempting to build equipment that already exists, and laymen trying to train other laymen how to perform the tasks of paramedics, perfusionists, and vascular surgeons...much of this time with the benefactors having ample funding to provide the real thing, in regard to both equipment and personnel. Organizations such as Alcor and Suspended Animation, which want to charge $60,000 to $150,000, (not to mention other extra charges, or years worth of membership dues), are not capable of preserving brains and/or bodies in a condition likely to be viable in the future. People associated with these companies, have been known to encourage people, not only to leave hefty life insurance policies with their organizations listed as the beneficiaries, to pay for these amateur surgical procedures, but to leave their estates and irrevocable trusts to cryonics organizations.
Some cryonicists make the seemingly-valid argument that people like Saul Kent and Bill Faloon contribute MILLIONS of dollars, each year, to cryonics organization, with no return. To be honest, I really can't figure it out, but something is seriously wrong with two allegedly-stellar businessmen, to be funding what appears to be mostly a scam. Then, again, the "tipping point" to earn money, at those prices, (not to mention the donations of irrevocable trusts, and bequests), must be relatively low. My guess is, even a small percentage of the funerary business must be worth exponentially more than they have been putting into their cryonics ventures.
Again, I have no problem with people receiving their last wishes. If people want to be cryopreserved, I think they should have that right. BUT...companies should not be allowed to deceive people who wish to be cryopreserved. They should not be allowed to publish photos of what looks like medical professionals performing surgery, but in actuality, is a group of laymen playing doctor with a dead body...people whose incompetency will result in their clients being left warm (and decaying), for many hours while they struggle to perform a vascular cannulation, or people whose brains will be underperfused or turned to mush, by laymen who have no idea how to properly and safely operate a perfusion circuit. Cryonics companies should not be allowed to refer to laymen as "Chief Surgeon," "Surgeon," "Perfusionist," when these people hold no medical credentials. IT'S FRAUDULENT.
It is time for legislators, (both here, in the US, and abroad), to recognize cryonics scams, and to restrict laymen from performing surgical procedures on dead bodies, (I don't know why licensed embalmers, (other than those in the State of Michigan), haven't already done something about this. Maybe the numbers just aren't big enough to worry them, yet.) It's also time for regulators to sanction medical personnel who enable laymen to have access to dangerous prescription medications, and engage in other unethical activities, related to cryonics. It's time...it's past time.
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