NEWS & VIEWS

The Cryonics Institute has reached an agreement with the Michigan Department Labor & Economic Growth (DLEG) Bureau of Commercial Services to be licensed as a cemetery. The Cease and Desist orders issued by CIS against CI have been withdrawn.

Ben Best

I did not want for an issue of THE IMMORTALIST to be published pending this important announcement, so I asked our editor/publisher (John Bull) to hold publication.

Although the issue is very late, I think it was worth waiting. The Nov/Dec issue of THE IMMORTALIST has been skipped, because I asked John to make the next issue Jan/Feb. All subscriptions will be extended accordingly.

Concerning the agreement with DLEG, CI agreed to be licensed as a cemetery without waiving its claims and objections regarding the lack of jurisdiction of DLEG or the Cemetery Commission over CI. CI's purpose is to attempt to save lives, not to store dead bodies. CIS has acknowledged the distinctive nature of cryonics.

CI can no longer perfuse patients at the CI facility. All perfusions done in the state of Michigan must be performed at the premises of a licensed funeral director -- although the protocol and perfusates are still those intended for cryopreservation, and can be modified when we are ready to implement vitrification. Because funeral directors already perform our perfusions under our direction (and will continue to do so under our agreement), we believe that we can operate and continue to improve our protocols at the premises of a funeral director.

The terms of the licensure also require the creation of an Endowment Care Trust Fund for patient care -- amounting to $4,000 per patient. (This is a bookkeeping transaction, is done internally in CI’s books, and has no effect on members at all) The interest from this fund can be used for patient maintenance and maintenance of CI's facility. The existence of a separate fund is required for all cemeteries, and is intended to provide an extra assurance that funds will be available to maintain our patients. CI will continue to hold more than this amount for patients outside of the Trust Fund in addition to the minimum requirements of DLEG.

A press release was created by negotiation and mutual consent between our lawyer (David Ettinger) and DLEG. This official press release was given to the media and is printed elsewhere in this issue of THE IMMORTALIST.

While CI has not sought out regulation, there are advantages to this result. By reaching an agreement that recognizes the many differences between CI and cemeteries, we believe that we have achieved a "benign regulation" that is intended only to provide additional protection to our members, and therefore have avoided the problems of hostile regulation.

Also, there are people who feel that their consumer's rights are being safeguarded when they deal with a regulated industry, so such people may be more comfortable about making cryonics arrangements with CI.

I regret that our members have been in the dark about this situation for so long -- wondering when or if this will be resolved, wondering what services CI can provide, and wondering how much of a problem it would be if a cryonics emergency arose.

We did have contingencies, but because of the sensitive legal situation it was better not to discuss them (and is probably still better not to discuss them). It is my preference to be open about matters when feasible and to have an open discussion of real problems with all our members as much as possible.

I look forward to not only resuming operations that are faithful to our purpose along with advancing technology & service -- but to resume efforts to establish open dialog with the membership.

Ben Best

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Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth

Cryonics Institute Now Licensed as Cemetery to Settle Dispute with State of Michigan

January 7, 2003 - The Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth (DLEG) Bureau of Commercial Services, and Cryonics Institute (CI) have settled their dispute by the licensure of CI as a cemetery under Michigan law.

CI is a nonprofit membership organization which "cryonically suspends," or freezes, patients immediately after clinical death, in the hope that they can be revived and rejuvenated when future technology is sufficiently advanced.

DLEG had issued orders requiring that CI cease and desist from many of its activities pending licensure.

Now that CI has been licensed, these cease and desist orders have been withdrawn.

"We are pleased that CI can now become a licensed facility, permitting state oversight of its operations," said David C. Hollister, Director of the Department of Labor & Economic Growth. "We believe that it’s licensure as a cemetery provides additional protections to the people of the State of Michigan."

"CI is very happy to have resolved this dispute, so that we can continue to grow and provide services to our members," said Ben Best, CI’s president. "While we believe that CI’s activities are very different from those contemplated by the Michigan laws governing cemeteries and mortuary science, we are ready to become licensed, and to permit oversight by DLEG staff.

Our agreement with DLEG recognizes the unique nature of CI’s services, and, as a nonprofit membership organization, we have always operated in the manner that best serves our members."

The agreement between DLEG and CI in most respects permits CI to continue operating as it has in the past, but subject to audits, inspections and financial reporting. CI will also segregate certain funds in an endowed care trust fund to cover maintenance expenses.

Additionally, CI has agreed that certain initial steps of the cryonic suspension process within the State of Michigan will only occur at licensed funeral establishments, conducted by licensed morticians. Such activities have in the past been conducted by licensed morticians at CI’s facility. Patients will still be stored at CI’s facility in liquid nitrogen.

The Bureau of Commercial Services of DLEG, licenses and regulates the practices of mortuary science, funeral establishments and cemeteries in Michigan. The Cryonics Institute is a nonprofit, membership organization based in Clinton Township, Michigan. CI has cryonically suspended 50 patients, and has more than 400 members.

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On November 6, 2003 at 6:30pm -- there was a hearing by the Planning & Zoning Board at Boca Raton (Florida) City Hall. The first item on the agenda was the application for zoning approval by Suspended Animation, Inc. Although the final decision on the zoning application is made by City Council (which meets in January), the recommendation of the P&Z Board can be a significant input in Council's decision. With P&Z Board approval, the Council would be almost certain to approve.

In the week prior to the meeting (particularly) Suspended Animation made an ardent appeal to cryonicists to attend the P&Z Board hearing. Appeals were also made to e-mail the Council membbers and the Mayor. The latter appeal may have created some confusion. The Mayor's auto-responder mentioned the Council meeting in January -- and some cryonicists who might have attended the P&Z Board meeting got the mistaken impression that it had been postponed until January.

At 6pm those attending the P&Z Board meeting were allowed to enter the City Hall Building. Everyone entering was required to show photo ID and to walk through a metal-detector. Outside, about 15 animal-rights activists stood on the

street-corner chanting to motorists and waving signs & banners. Reporters from Channel 5 (http://www.TCPalm.com) and News 12 covered the events outside as well as in the hearing.

Anyone in attendence in the courtroom willing to state their home address and be sworn-in was given the opportunity of making a 5-minute testimony following the introductory briefings. The Chairman of the P&Z Board stressed that repetition would not be welcome and further attempted to intimidate would-be testifiers by saying they would be subject to cross-examination (which never happened). He was also concerned that all of the animal rights activists would be saying the same thing, so he requested that a spokesperson be appointed to speak for the group.

The first briefing was by a P&Z staffer who described the zoning of the South Congress Industrial Center (SCIC), which is zoned as M-3. She said that mortuary use is not permitted in an M-3 zone and that Suspended Animation (SA) does not qualify for the Conditional Use petition. She then named the activities qualifying for Conditional Use, which included such things as bottling, TV repair, heliports -- and laboratory/industrial research & testing.

The SA lawyer then argued that SA is not a mortuary, but is a research organization. SA President Dave Shumaker then gave a rapid-fire presentation describing the scientific credentials of his staff & consultants as well as a scientific justification for cryonics research – stressing that any animals used would be treated humanely.

The P&Z Board Chairman interjected to ask "if cryonics works, what will we do with all the people?"-- adding a disclaimer that his own question is irrelevant to the decision. Mr. Shumaker said that Man is adaptable and that additional population could be handled, just as the world is currently sustaining 6 billion people without a problem (causing some groans among the animal rights activists).

About 10 people testified in support of SA, whereas only 4 animal rights activists testified against (and one of the 4 was a written briefing). The animal rights activists summitted to the plans of their leadership (as had been requested), whereas there was no co-ordination among the cryonicists other than to encourage as many as possible to speak. The animal rights activists were sitting together en mass in the back, but they refrained from jeering & cheering when reprimanded by the judge about doing so.

Bill Faloon testified as a licensed Florida mortician, stating his license number. He testified categorically that the practice of cryonics is completely unlike what a mortician does. One of the animal rights testimonies was an emotional appeal by a Boca Raton woman, but the other two opposition testimonies strove to cite scientific authorities who supported the claim that cryonics is crackpot pseudo-science and that SA would be conducting frivolous & unnecessary experiments which would cruelly torture animals as part of a scheme to dupe desperate people with false promises in a profit-making scam.

I surprised myself by making a mostly emotional testimony. I said that I have been interested in cryonics most of my life and that I wear a bracelet that says I am donating my body to cryonics research. I said that I do not believe immortality is possible, but that cryonics has the possibility to save & extend lives. I said that I view cryonics as medicine and that if they prohibit cryonics out of concern for overpopulation, they should also prohibit heart transplant, kidney transplant and all medical research. I noted that 21st Century Medicine had cryopreserved rabbit kidneys at -50C and successfully transplanted the kidneys into the rabbits with complete recovery.

I said that I hope that cryonics can save my life, but if it does not I hope that my donation to research may help the next person (comparable to an AIDS victim subject to an experimental treatment). I said that I have many friends who have made similar arrangements as well as friends already frozen. I said that I care about animals, but that I also care about my friends. I was becoming so emotional that I felt I should end on that note.

After the testimonies the P&Z Board basically said that the testimonies had all been irrelevant. The staffer in the initial briefing had established that a mortuary is unsuitable for M-3 zoning and that SA clearly does not qualify for the Conditional Use petition. All 6 P&Z Board members agreed unanimously to deny SA the Conditional Use petition. A roar of cheering and clapping came from the from the animal rights activists in the back of the courtroom.

The hearing was then recessed and most people left. I heard three of the P&Z Board members chatting & laughing between themselves about what great entertainment the proceedings had been.

It is possible that when Council meets in January that it will overrule the Planning & Zoning Board, and approve the Conditional Use petition that Suspended Animation has made.

Ben Best

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David and Connie Ettnger have made a $20,000. donation to The Immortalist Society’s Research Fund.

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SPORTS ILLUSTRATED reported that John Henry Williams, 35, was diagnosed with leukemia earlier this month, Eric Abel, Williams' attorney would not discuss any other aspects of Williams' condition.

John Henry Williams told the Citrus County Chronicle that he was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia at UCLA Medical Center and that he has already started chemotherapy.

"The whole goal is get the leukemia in remission," Williams told the newspaper.

After Ted Williams died July 5, 2002, John Henry Williams was at the center  of a controversy surrounding his father's remains. Williams had his father's body taken to Alcor, setting off a battle with his half-sister, who said her father had wanted to be cremated.

The matter was settled in December, when Bobby Jo Ferrell, Ted Williams' oldest daughter, dropped her objections.

John Henry Williams' other sister, Claudia Williams, told the newspaper she is in Los Angeles for tests to determine if she is a match for a possible bone marrow transplant.

"It's not good, not good at all, considering his age," Claudia Williams said.

About 10,500 new cases of acute myelogenous leukemia are diagnosed each year in the United States, with remission occurring in 70-80 percent of those patients.

Ted Williams finished with a .344 career average and was the last major leaguer to bat over .400, when he hit .406 in 1941.

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Brent Erskine and I did an interview for a television production called TKO (technical knockout). It’s produced by Pyramid Productions, and I think is channeled through Global / Canwest. It airs primarily in Western Canada, but those of you with time shifting from Rogers Cable might be able to pick it up. They will nevertheless send us a copy of the show on tape. I think it went incredibly well. We spoke with the videographer for more than an hour, and it was unscripted, which was nice. (I didn't read from the notes I had prepared, and Brent spoke off the cuff too) I'd like to thank Brent for participating. I think this will be a positive presentation of cryonics to the community at large. As well, being the first time either of us have done this, it was a great learning experience. I hope that we can do more of these, on a regular basis, as I think it will go a long way towards one of our goals (at least one of mine anyways) of normalizing and legitimizing cryonics to the larger Canadian community.

Christine Gaspar

President, Cryonics Society of Canada _________________________________

Starting March 1, 2003 Option Two CI membership will require a $75 initiation fee to cover set-up costs in addition to the usual $120 per year (or $30 quarterly) payments. If you have friends or relatives who have been procrastinating about joining CI as an Option Two Member, encourage them to join before the March 1st deadline to save on the cost of the initiation fee. Note that in addition to checks & PayPal,we now accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express for payments.

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The Scripps Research Institute is one of the worlds largest non-profit biomedical research organizations. It’s internationally known for its research in immunology, molecular and cellular biology, and a number of related fields.

It was founded in 1961 from it’s predecessor, The Scripps Metabolic Clinic which was founded in 1924 after a gift from philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, who herself was an heiress of the Scripps Howard newspaper chain.

Their California facility is located in LaJolla, and employs about 3000 people. This figure includes 288 principal investigators, (3 Nobel Laureates,) 15 fellows of The American Association for the Advancement of Science and 775 postdoctorial fellows.

The physical layout consists of 12 buildings with more than a million square feet. This year Scripps received nearly $205 million in research grants from The National Institutes of Health. The area around the LaJolla campus is surrounded with buildings with names familiar to everyone, Pifzer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, to name only a few. All arethere to maintain a close working relationship with Scripps.

Now Scripps wants to do for Florida what they did for California. Governor Bush learned this past summer about Scripps desire to open a facility on the east coast.

With stunning speed , and a level of security not seen since Disney came to Orlando in the 60’s, Bush courted Scripps with enthusiasm and intensity. He christened the secret venture, "Project Air Conditioning," likening it to the radical changes to Florida with the advent of air conditioning.

Subject to approval by the legislature, Florida is offering $310 million to pay for technology and salaries for Scripps Florida employees for several years. Palm Beach County, where the facility would be located, has offered up to $200 million for land, a new building and temporary headquarters.

Scripps claims it would be a magnet for other research organizations and laboratories that would attract leading academics and professionals. Scripps President Richard Lerner has said the Florida facility would focus on drug discovery, rather than pure scientific research. They plan to create a fully staffed, fully equipped drug design port that would allow open access for qualified researchers in Florida. These design ports would allow researchers to convert their findings into new drug discoveries. Additionally, he said Scripps would provide joint degree programs for all of Florida’s universities.

The day was, a few decades ago when the prognostications of the World Future Society, (WFS) were valued by Presidents, politicians and the media alike. But over the years, time has taken it’s toll of the movement.

Mike Marien, an outspoken critic of the field said "Everybody’s more specialized, so there isn’t a market for anyone who can speak about large holistic matters with any authority." The Society’s membership rolls are down ten percent from ten years ago. An WFS member hasn’t been invited to the White House since Ronald Reagan was President. Long gone are the days when Isaac Asimov, Buckminster Fuller, and Arthur C. Clarke made headlines with their prophesies.

Ed Cornish, 76 and founder of the movement in 1966, works on a computer- a DOS machine that doesn’t do e-mail, the net or Windows. Recently, a staffer said to his boss "A Seattle radio station called, wants to know if you have some predictions for next year." Cornish thought a bit, then said, "I can’t think of anything in particular."

Futurism is doomed for a number of reasons. For starters, we now have a plethora of niche consultants, and a booming field called risk analysis, which uses proven actuarial methods. We’ve wised up to the fact that futurism as a discipline is a bit of a con. They examine trends, and play out what if scenarios. Anyone with a dial-up connection can do it.

Finally, there’s a trail of forty years of failed predictions. Consider a recent one: Watts Wacker, a well know futurist consultant predicted in 1999 that the U.S. Postal Service would offer free e-mail accounts within two years. He said USPS had the ideas and the will to make it happen, that "they’ve done their homework." Four years later, when Gerry McKiernan, Director of Media Relations for USPS was asked about it, he said, "this is the first I’ve heard about it." "If we don’t sell stamps, we don’t pay our employees." Apparently Wacker hadn’t done his homework.

When enough predictions are made, some are bound to be right. A few futurists, (and Wacker in 1997) predicted that terrorists might someday hijack a plane and crash it into a building. But by 1996 Tom Clancy had already written two books based on that premise! Adapted from WIRED

Please note the date change for TransVision 2004: August 6-8, 2004

TransVision 2004: Art and Life in the Posthuman Era, JJR McLeod Auditorium, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Include all of the following information in a two-page proposal for your presentation:

- Title of presentation

- Type of presentation (i.e. talk, performance, exhibit, video, etc.)

- Program track to which topic relates:

- Transhuman Art and Culture

- Transhuman Science and Technology

- Transhuman Ethics, Law, and Politics

- Other (see list of suggested topics for examples at the TV04 Website)

- Objective(s) of the presentation

- Description of the content and format (300 words or less)

- Abstract (25 - 50 words) for inclusion in the conference program

- Presentation space requirements, media to be used and audiovisual equipment needed (if any).

- Designated contact person (only one per proposal)

- Complete name, title, organization, address, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail address for each session presenter

- Brief biographical sketch (50-100 words) of each presenter

Please submit your proposals electronically to World Transhumanist Association secretary James Hughes Ph.D. at james.hughes@trincoll.edu. If necessary, you may submit your conference proposal to Dr. Hughes by mailing it to him at: Trinity College, 71 Vernon St., Hartford CT 06106, or by faxing it to: (860) 297-4079.Deadline for submissions is April 15, 2004. Please attach the paper the presentation is based on if it is already written.

After notification of acceptance of your paper, all presenters (at least one per presentation) will be required to pre-register for the conference. Presenters not registered by June 15, 2004 will not be included in the program.

For more information see the conference website at http://www.transhumanism.org/tv/2004

Proposals will be selected based on the following criteria:

- A clear and concise description of the proposed presentation

- Relevance to conference goals and objectives

- Evidence of presenter experience with topic

- Completion of all information requested

- Proposals due by: April 15, 2004

- Notification of acceptance: May 15, 2004

- Deadline for conferees to pre-register: June 15, 2004