16 replies to this topic

[Bruce Klein]

Boca firm planning to freeze bodies stymied

By John Murawski, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 27, 2003

http://www.palmbeach...727939495295111

Deep-freezing Floridians for revival in a far-off future was supposed to have glorious prospects in affluent Boca Raton.

But getting official approval to preserve people in nitrogen tanks is proving nettlesome for Suspended Animation, the start-up Boca Raton cryonics outfit seeking to become the state's first lab for freezing humans.

The problem: Florida law has no provisions for a cryonics license, so state regulators are asking Suspended Animation to get licensed as a funeral parlor.

Company officials say a funeral license would not give them sufficient time to freeze humans at their lab off Clint Moore Road because funeral homes are not permitted to start treating corpses in the hospital at the instant of a patient's death. After the heart stops, a patient's cells begin to deteriorate within 20 minutes.

"We have to get in there and intervene in the little window after legal death," said David Hayes, chief financial officer of Suspended Animation. "The timing issue is incredibly important for us."

The company wants an exemption from licensing under the Anatomical Gift Act, contending that its patients would be donating themselves for scientific research to benefit all of humanity.

Waiting for the state legislature to revise the law to create a licensing category for cryonics could take years, the company fears.

"This has gotten to be a nightmare, an absolute nightmare from our perspective," said company President David Shumaker. "The state code is made up for mortuaries."

The company is tentatively scheduled for an Oct. 9 Boca Raton Planning & Zoning Board hearing; final consideration by the city council would be scheduled later that month.

If approved here, Suspended Animation would be the fourth cryonics operation in the nation.

Since 1967, about 1,000 people have signed up to be frozen when they die, the most famous cryonicist being baseball great Ted Williams. Some patients, including Williams, go the cheaper route and have only their heads frozen, believing that in time scientists will be able to sprout bodies from genetic material contained in patients' brains.


Critics: Research ridiculous

With plans to freeze cadavers temporarily stalled, Suspended Animation is moving ahead with a parallel phase of its business plan: to conduct tissue-freezing experiments on lab rats in Boca Raton. The purpose of the experiments, which could involve up to several hundred rats a year, is to improve techniques for freezing humans.

Animal experiments could pose another headache: Animal rights activists -- who plan to swarm the city council's yet-unscheduled hearing when Suspended Animation is on the agenda. The American Anti-Vivisection Society in Jenkintown, Pa., has been urging members to e-mail Boca Raton City Council members to urge them not to allow the killing of animals in the name of what many regard as a pseudoscience.

"It's just ridiculous, frivolous research that's going to cause pain and suffering to countless animals," said Tina Nelson, executive director of the American Anti-Vivisection Society. "I'm possibly going to come in person to testify."

Councilman Dave Freudenberg, owner of six shelter-rescued cats and a 25-year old turtle named Tim, echoes those sentiments.

"As soon as you can bring back the first cockroach, then I'll listen to you," he said. "I think this is the snake-oil sales presentation of the 21st century."

Councilman Bill Hager, an insurance actuary who knows something about human life spans, warns that if the city council starts second-guessing unpopular business practices, it might have to make subjective judgment calls about the appropriateness of cremation, herbal supplements and any other business that some find offensive.


Leeway for inventiveness?

As for the animal rights activists, Hager said: "I am prepared to withstand the rat brigade."

Hager, though, is reluctant to mock the company's far-out prognostications. Suspended Animation hopes to preserve people until science has devised ways to thaw the subjects back to life and treat them for their cancers, coronary diseases and other ailments incurable today.

"In the history of humankind," Hager said, "every forward-looking invention has brought ridicule and laughter when it was first brought up."

Another aspect of the company's mission is to conduct "market research to determine who in society might be candidates for cryopreservation and to develop methods to access those individuals," according to the company.

Suspended Animation plans to run cryonics ads in local newspapers and on billboards and hold cryonics seminars in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. The market research would get under way next year, Shumaker said.

So who might be a viable candidate for a hypothermic time capsule that could cost upwards of $200,000?

"People that are dying," Shumaker said. "Especially those who have been reasonably successful and happy in their lives.

"Those who are saying: 'I'm enjoying this and I don't want anything to come in the way.' "

john_murawski@pbpost.com

[Bruce Klein]

Dear Council Member Bill Hager,

I extend warm appreciation for your efforts to ensure fairness in the proceedings concerning Suspended Animation. I read your quote in the Palm Beach Post, Sept. 27, 2003:

"In the history of humankind, every forward-looking invention has brought ridicule and laughter when it was first brought up."

As founder of the Immortality Institute (http://www.imminst.org) an organization with similar goals as Suspended Animation, I see many instances where even-handed comments like yours would be helpful. I hope you continue to lead in this way.

If you have any questions about cryonics or why people pursue life extension, I'd be happy to help.

Sincerely,
Bruce Klein
Founder, Immortality Institute ~ For Infinite Lifespans

---
Council Member Bill Hager,
Phone Number 393-7708
E-mail: BHager@ci.Boca-Raton.fl.us

[Bruce Klein]

Dear John Murawski, john_murawski@pbpost.com

Thank you for writing your article "Boca firm planning to freeze bodies stymied" concerning Suspend Animation. I'm not affiliated with Suspended Animation, but I an the Founder of the Immortality Institute, an organization with similar goals concerning life extension.

If you have any questions about cryonics or why people pursue physical immortality, I'd be happy to help.

Sincerely,
Bruce Klein
Founder, Immortality Institute ~ For Infinite Lifespans
http://www.imminst.org

[Bruce Klein]

They freeze dead people
Suspended Animation’s request for permit to do ‘cryopreservation’ in Boca to be heard Thursday

Published Tuesday, October 21, 2003
by Dale M. King


Just eight days shy of Halloween, the Boca Raton Planning & Zoning Board will hear one of its most chilling requests.

Suspended Animation Inc., the Boca-based firm that wants to conduct research into “cryopreservation” – extreme low-temperature freezing of bodies for eventual revival – will ask P&Z on Thursday for permission to do the work at its current location, 1082 Rogers Circle in the South Congress Industrial Center.

The Planning & Zoning Board will make a recommendation to the City Council, which has the final say in the matter. The council will hold a public hearing at a later date.
P&Z meets Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall.

If the request is approved, Suspended Animation Inc. will become Florida’s only cryonics facility for humans – and one of only a few in the United States.

In its application, the firm says most of its work will be in research on the cryogenics process. Documents say no more than five cadavers will be frozen during the year for storage at a facility owned by Alcor Life Extension Foundation.

The idea of freezing bodies for eventual revival gained new recognition – not to mention infamy – when retired Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams was frozen after his death. The case made headlines not only for the cryogenics process, but for the argument among his children about whether dad should be cremated or quick-frozen.

There is a connection. In its filing, Suspended Animation says it is a subcontractor for Alcor. And any bodies frozen in Boca will go to one of Alcor’s storage facilities. Williams is on ice in Arizona.

Most of the company’s research will be on animals, specifically rats, and on human cadavers in order to discover a way to preserve a whole body without damaging tissue. Although about 90 percent of the company’s business will consist of research, according to its filings with the city, it will be staffed with medical professionals able to place a person into a deep freeze.

“We don’t store any bodies. We do front end work in cryonics,” company President David Shumaker said in an interview earlier this year. About 1,000 people have signed up to be frozen in the name of science, according to the company’s filing.

The application said the firm’s 35,500-square foot building will remain virtually unchanged. Plans call for the creation of a couple of labs and a preparation room inside, but nothing that would change the exterior.

The Life Extension Foundation of Fort Lauderdale funds Suspended Animation Inc., its application says, and 5300 Palisades Avenue Association LLC of New Jersey owns it.

[galtsgulch]

THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION WAS TAKEN FROM THE SUSPENDED ANIMATION, INC. WEB SITE


(SEE, http://suspendedanimationinc.org/supportcryonics.html )

THEY NEED OUR IMMEDIATE HELP!!

Boca Raton Planning and Zoning Meeting information

Dear Cryonics Enthusiast,

As the president of Suspended Animation, Inc. I am asking you to help us win a very important battle, a battle critical to cryonics in Florida as well as the entire cryonics community.

As you may know, we are a new cryonics company located in Boca Raton, FL. We began operations last year with funding support from the Life Extension Foundation. We have been instrumental in the cryosuspension of three Floridians and a similar number of cryonicists elsewhere in the country. Our primary goal is to perform research that will enhance cryonics through whole body vitrification and vastly reduced previtrification ischemic damage. But, we also provide you the first response capability that may make the difference between a good resuscitation prognosis and oblivion.

SA is the only cryonics organization who plans to perform substantive research to improve both control of ischemia and reduction of cryosuspension damage. 95% of our efforts are directed to research to improve cryonics technology. SA is the only company now providing professional Standby Based Transport to ensure you get immediate professional care from the moment of pronouncement. Lastly, we are the only organization proposing to provide whole body vitrification. We welcome you to look over our website www.suspended.org and view how we are making a substantial impact on the industry and how we can be of service to Florida cryonicists.

We are in a crisis at this moment brought on by the pending refusal of Boca Raton to grant us occupancy and building permits and by the State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers who demand that we become a licensed mortuary. Unless we can reverse the Boca Raton licensing problem, an entire two year's worth of effort will be wasted as we are forced out of our facility and must seek another place from which to operate, if we can. As I am sure you know, no cryonics organization has a lot of money to waste and this will come close to killing the entire operation. If we do not win in our battle with the State over becoming a licensed mortuary, cryonics will for all practical purposes be prohibited in Florida - yes I mean it - forbidden. Mortuaries are forbidden to treat patients except in the mortuary, thus all of the bedside anti-ischemia treatment vital to ensuring brain tissue viability is prohibited. This is only one roadblock created by the State's licensing requirement; there are many others.

We desperately need your help in two areas. First, there is a Boca Raton Planning and Zoning meeting on Thursday Nov 6 at 6:00 PM, in the Boca Raton City Hall that will debate our occupancy and building permits. The auditorium has 300 seats and to the extent they are filled with cryonicists, those in power can hear a voice for approving our permits. Furthermore, individuals can sign up to be heard for five minutes. If the seats are filled with animal rights activists and those who hate anything new or unknown, then only their voices will be heard as they have been so far. We really need you. Unless there is a groundswell of support, they are going to recommend to City Council that our permits be denied purely because we are a cryonics organization.

In addition to your help at the meeting we would greatly appreciate it if you would send the attached letter (or one similar to it) to the Boca Raton City Council at the address below to encourage them to vote for us when the measure comes up. These guys all respond to the voters, and those who voice their preference are the only ones heard

Boca Raton City Council
201 West Palmetto Park Road
Boca Raton, Florida 33432
"Boca Raton Planning and Zoning Meeting information
Dear Cryonics Enthusiast,

[Bruce Klein]

Suspended Animation, Inc (SA) got operationally underway in February of 2002 on a nine-day standby, transport, and vitrification effort in conjunction with Alcor. Significant capital infusion arrived in May, 2002. We were only able to move into our facility in November. Immediately thereafter we moved our equipment from Rancho Cucamonga only to put much of it in storage while our new facility in Boca Raton, Florida was under construction. Our faciliy is within about two miles of the Florida Atlantic University, which has just welcomed its first freshman medical school class this past month.

http://suspendedanim...c.org/news.html

[reason]

Well, I sent something off. I may not live in Florida, and I may not even be American enough to vote, but what the hell. I'm getting very tired of seeing medical progress blocked at every turn by knee-jerk luddites.

----------
I note that your jurisdiction is giving a hard time to Suspended Animation, Inc, a cryonics research company attempting to set up business in Boca Raton. Please note the following:

1) In a recent poll by the Palm Beach Post 44% of hundreds of respondents answered "yes" to the proposition:
"If a cryonics lab were to come to Boca Raton, would you consider having your body frozen after your death?" This sends a very clear message on opinions of this medical technology.

2) Cryonics, if improved and commercialized, offers the possibility of a wide range of useful and lucrative technologies: everything from better and more reliable organ transportion, to better long-term storage of tissue for transplants, to life-saving field equipment for first responder medical personnel.

3) Forbidding cryonics companies from carrying out their legitimate business - as they have done in the US for over 30 years - serves no purpose beyond pandering to a small set of special interests and knee-jerk anti-progress forces while ignoring the mass of your constituents.

A vocal minority in today's America want to stop anything that resembles human medical progress. They would have everyone die of cancer, AIDS and heart disease, rather than perform needed research on rats or let medical science do something new. Every incredible benefit we see in our health and medical technology today has come from companies such as Suspended Animation, Inc -- and each one of those things was once new.

Time to decide: are you on the side of progress and better medicine, or are you with the unthinking luddites and their shouted demands? For my part, it would be nice to see Florida city councils avoid occupying that spot of infamy next to Kansas school boards and Presidents who put religion above developing cures for disease.

Reason
Founder, Longevity Meme
reason@longevitymeme.org
http://www.longevitymeme.org
-----------

Reason
Founder, Longevity Meme
reason@longevitymeme.org
http://www.longevitymeme.org

[Bruce Klein]

Thanks for your help Reason.

[reason]

Thanks for your help Reason.

Have a look at this:

-----------------------------------
Thank you for your email regarding the cryonics facility proposed by Suspended Animation, Inc. Unfortunately, due to the volume of correspondence I am receiving, both pro and con, I am unable to respond to each message personally.

The City Council is not scheduled to take up this matter until January, 2004, at the earliest. The Council's consideration relates to whether the facility complies with the City's zoning code. The cryonics process itself is not regulated by the City, but must meet all applicable state regulations.

Please be assured that your comments will be entered into the record and given due consideration. We appreciate your taking the time to share your concerns with us on this issue.


--Mayor Steven L. Abrams
City of Boca Raton
201 West Palmetto Park Road
Boca Raton, Florida 33432

(561) 393-7708
(561) 367-7014 - Fax
sabrams@ci.boca-raton.fl.us
http://www.ci.boca-raton.fl.us

********************************************************************************
**
Please note: Florida has a very broad public records laws. Most
written communications to or from local officials regarding city
business are public records available to the public and media
upon request. Your e-mail communications may therefore be
subject to public disclosure.

The City of Boca Raton has scanned this outbound email message
for malicious content and found it to be virus free.
********************************************************************************
**

[Bruce Klein]

Nice response... looks like we have a little support down there.

From SA: First, there is a Boca Raton Planning and Zoning meeting on Thursday Nov 6 at 6:00 PM, in the Boca Raton City Hall that will debate our occupancy and building permits. The auditorium has 300 seats and to the extent they are filled with cryonicists, those in power can hear a voice for approving our permits.

vs.

Mayor Steven L. Abrams:  The City Council is not scheduled to take up this matter until January, 2004,

The difference between these two meetings is not totally clear to me....

[reason]

The difference between these two meetings is not totally clear to me....

Myself either; may be they're backing off a bit in time due to the number of responses. I should send an e-mail to the guys at SA and ask.

Reason
Founder, Longevity Meme
reason@longevitymeme.org
http://www.longevitymeme.org

[kevin]

Link: http://www.sun-senti...=sfla-news-palm
Date: 11-07-03
Author: Kathy Bushouse
Source: http://www.sun-sentinel.com
Title: Cryonics company handed setback as Boca board rejects plan

---

Cryonics company handed setback as Boca board rejects plan
Boca Raton · A company with designs on doing research, and eventually bringing clinically dead people back to life, was dealt its first setback Thursday when the Planning & Zoning Board recommended rejection of its plans.

Suspended Animation's application to build a 5,800-square-foot laboratory now will go on to the City Council for a final vote, probably early next year.

Company officials pleaded their case to the board Thursday, emphasizing their research goals and their scientific bent.

"We're all about preserving living tissue. We're not about dead people," said David Shumaker, Suspended Animation chief executive. "This is not pie-in-the-sky at all. This is just the next step in scientific research."

The company's scientists would focus on whole-body vitrification, a process that essentially turns water inside a body into a gelatin-like substance.

The hope is that later the process could be reversed and tissue brought back to life.

Suspended Animation's controversial application brought out dozens of people to Thursday's meeting -- those who oppose the company's use of animals in its research, and those who said the work done there could be beneficial in the future.

About two dozen animal-rights supporters protested in front of City Hall before the meeting, asking city leaders to reject the company's application.

During the meeting, they held up papers printed with "Suspended Animation: Not in Boca" and "Unnecessary Animal Testing: Not in Boca."

"This is research on animals in an area that is not considered legitimate by the scientific community," said Heather Lischin, managing director of the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida. She said she feared there "will be no limits to what they could do" if Suspended Animation's application were approved.

Lischin called the company a scheme intended to prey on the elderly.

Others said the company would be an embarrassment to the city.

"I believe that the approval of this application would be premature and irresponsible," said Jill Palmer, who lives west of Boca Raton. "I just don't think we should be associated with something like this."

Supporters of Suspended Animation and of cryonics said the company would do valuable work.

"I think there's an interesting opportunity with what this organization wants to do," said David London of Delray Beach.

Benjamin Best, a Canadian who said he extended his vacation to Florida to take part in Thursday's public hearing, said the potential for advancing science is great.

"I do not believe immortality is possible," Best said. "I believe life extension is possible."

Company officials said they would harm no animals in their research. Shumaker said the research would be done on rats and on euthanized dogs from area animal shelters. The company's Web site says its research also would include rabbits.

Shumaker said the company eventually hopes to do research on humans who would will their bodies to the enterprise under the state's Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, which facilitates such donations. At most, he said, he expects to get three people each year.

Attorney Susan Delegal, representing Suspended Animation, said the company would fit in with its neighbors in the office-park area in the city's north end. If approved, Suspended Animation would be between a pest-control company and a furniture manufacturer.

"In every regard, this business will be a good neighbor," Delegal said.

Planning & Zoning Board members said neither the animal research nor the company's business plans were part of their decision. Rather, they said, the lab didn't meet with the city's overall plan.

"We have zoning designations in this city," said zoning board member Steve Utrecht. "That's what our decision is going to be based on."

Kathy Bushouse can be reached at kbushouse@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6641. Email story
Print story



Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

[Bruce Klein]

Cryonics firm gives up effort to freeze bodies in Boca Raton

Associated Press
Posted December 4 2003, 11:11 AM EST

BOCA RATON -- A company has given up on attempts to get city approval to build Florida's only cryonics facility for humans after officials repeatedly rejected the proposal.

Suspended Animation, based in Boca Raton, will likely seek a new home for its lab to freeze people's bodies and conduct experiments on rats and dogs, preferably somewhere in South Florida.


``We've basically concluded we should be looking elsewhere for a facility,'' CEO David Shumaker said.

Last month, the city's planning and zoning board voted 6-0 to reject the plan. The city council is set to consider on Jan. 13 whether freezing humans is permitted by city zoning at the company's proposed lab. But several council members said they would again turn down the company's request.

``It's a dead issue,'' City Councilwoman Susan Whelchel said.

Cryogenics gained a widespread audience last year when the son of baseball slugger Ted Williams had his father's body flown to the Alcor Life Extension Foundation facility in Arizona, where it was cryonically frozen.

Cryogenic supporters donate their bodies for freezing or sometimes just their heads in the belief that future scientific breakthroughs will allow doctors to bring them back to life or regenerate youthful bodies from DNA. But critics contend that is highly unlikely.

``My issue was primarily scientific,'' said City Councilman Dave Freudenberg, who holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry. ``What I see them as is a quasi, hocus-pocus laboratory.''


http://www.sun-senti...-home-headlines

[Bruce Klein]

Body-freezing firm puts permit fight on ice
City officials say Suspended Animation will not proceed with application for cryonics research

Published Friday, December 5, 2003
by Dale M. King

A Boca Raton firm’s ardor to do cryonics research – and maybe freeze a few dead bodies on the side – has apparently died away.

Two members of the City Council said Thursday they’ve heard serious scuttlebutt that Suspended Animation Inc. will not pursue its request for a permit to conduct “cryopreservation” research at its facility at 1082 Rogers Circle in the South Congress Industrial Center.

Both Deputy Mayor Susan Whelchel and Councilman Dave Freudenberg said they don’t expect the firm to go through with its plan.

A hearing is scheduled Jan. 13 before the council, but the request has taken some serious hits already.
Among those is a 6-0 recommendation from the Planning & Zoning Board that the permit request be rejected.

Whelchel and Freudenberg said the council will probably go ahead with the hearing, but don’t expect anyone to show.

No one was available to speak with the media when the Boca Raton News called the company on Thursday.
In addition to the thumbs-down recommendation from the P&Z Board, Suspended Animation’s proposal has been soundly protested by animal rights activists who demonstrated outside City Hall the night of the Planning & Zoning hearing.

“Cryopreservation” is a process of extreme low-temperature freezing of bodies for eventual reawakening.
Had the company gotten the go-ahead, it would have become Florida’s only cryonics facility for humans – and one of only a few in the United States.

In its application which apparently has not yet been withdrawn at City Hall, the firm says most of its work – some 95 percent – will be in research on the cryonics process.

The fact that Suspended Animation would be using rats and previously euthanized dogs in its experiments has raised the ire the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida (ARFF) which organized the protest.

The idea of freezing bodies gained new recognition recently after retired Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams was put on ice following his death.

The Life Extension Foundation of Fort Lauderdale funds Suspended Animation Inc., its application says, and 5300 Palisades Avenue Association LLC of New Jersey owns it.


http://www.bocaraton.....ry=LOCAL NEWS

[Bruce Klein]

Boca firm revives request to do research on body-freezing

Published Monday, January 12, 2004
by Dale M. King

A Boca Raton firm has apparently resurrected its proposal to do research on freezing dead humans for possible later revival.

Suspended Animation Inc. has notified local officials that it will present its proposal to the City Council at a hearing Tuesday at 6 p.m. in City Hall.

Planning and Zoning Director Carmen Annunziato said he has received a letter from Suspended Animation’s attorney saying she will attend Tuesday’s hearing and a presentation will be made.

Two City Council members told the News in interviews late last year that they had heard the firm was going to pull out after receiving a unanimous rejection vote from the Planning & Zoning Board following a public hearing last November.
The News contacted the company last week, but was told that President David Shumaker and Chief Operating Officer David Hayes were out of town, and would be for several weeks – including this week.

A call to the firm’s lawyer was not returned.

In addition to the thumbs-down recommendation from the P&Z Board, Suspended Animation’s proposal has been soundly protested by animal rights activists who demonstrated outside City Hall the night of the Planning & Zoning hearing.
“Cryopreservation” is a process of extreme low-temperature freezing of bodies for eventual reawakening.


In its application filed at City Hall, the firm says most of its work – some 95 percent – will be in research on the cryopreservation process.

The fact that Suspended Animation would be using rats and previously euthanized dogs in its experiments has raised the ire the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida (ARFF) which organized the protest.

Also weighing in on the negative side is City Manager Leif Ahnell. In a letter going to the council in advance of Tuesday’s hearing, he is recommending rejecting the request for a conditional use permit for the research and testing facility at 1082 Rogers Circle in the South Congress Industrial Center.

Ahnell said human cryopreservation is not permissible in the zoning district where the building is located.

Also, he said, the Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers requires the firm to file for licensing unless it receives an exemption from the state legislature.
The city manager also said he does not know how the state will regulate the body-freezing industry.

In an earlier interview with the News, Shumaker said Suspended Animation wants to research how to slow tissue growth with extreme cold so that a body can be frozen now and thawed later. It is not a revival, he said, so much as a restoration of life processes.

“This is being done right now on a tissue and organ level,” he said. “But we haven’t been able to do it with an entire organism.”

The idea of freezing bodies gained new recognition when retired Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams was put on ice following his death.


Shumaker said about 1,000 people have signed up to be frozen.

The application said the firm’s building will remain virtually unchanged. Plans call for the creation of a couple of labs and a preparation room inside, but nothing that would change the exterior.

The Life Extension Foundation of Fort Lauderdale funds Suspended Animation Inc., its application says, and 5300 Palisades Avenue Association LLC of New Jersey owns it.

http://www.bocaraton...0NEWS&prid=7259

[DJS]

The fact that Suspended Animation would be using rats and previously euthanized dogs in its experiments has raised the ire the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida (ARFF) which organized the protest.

Don't these animal rights people have better things to do with there time...LIKE HELP SAVE THE LIVES OF MILLIONS OF DOGS AND CATS IN THE UNITED STATES THAT ARE STILL ALIVE! OR HOW ABOUT PROTESTING THE HORRIBLE CONDITIONS THAT LIVE STOCK ARE BREED AND RAISED IN! TALK ABOUT GETTING YOUR PRIORITIES WRONG, WHAT A BUNCH OF LOSERS. [ang]

[Bruce Klein]

From: david shumaker davshu@sunline.net
Subject: News from Suspended Animation

News from Suspended Animation for March 1 - 12.

Despite the setback in our attempts to begin construction of our
laboratories, SA is moving forward at a fairly fast pace. We have
located alternative buildings but are delaying decisions regarding them
until another, more desirable, locational possibility can be explored.
Fortunately, the lack of a permanent facility does not hamper basic
equipment fabrication activities or our transport capability. All of our
perfusion and cooldown equipment is on wheels and will simply be moved
to our new home when such is located. Similarly, it can also be moved to
a local laboratory to perform appropriate experiments or vitrification
itself. Only the required LN2 is somewhat less portable.

As has been the case for some time, we are totally ready for and capable
of performing Standby Based Transport anywhere. All members of our team
have SBT field experience. We can both transport to Alcor for freezing
or vitrification or to CI for final cooldown in a traditional glycerol
based freeze.

Efforts underway include the following:

1. A portable dry ice temperature, moderate-speed, gas cooldown box that
fits inside a Ziegler box and can be shipped to the patient location for
field glycerolized freezing to dry ice temperature prior to shipment to
CI or Alcor is in final design for fabrication beginning this week. Once
the patient is cooled to dry ice temperature, the cooling paraphernalia
is removed, dry ice is added and the box fits into the Ziegler box for
shipping to the custodial facility.
2. SA has orders for three of its gurney based PIBs. Parts are in
fabrication and delivery should occur soon. The PIB has its own
operating-height gurney that fits inside the folded PIB. The liner is
seamless to avoid microbe hiding places.
3. We have had an indication of interest for three of our advanced
thumpers but need orders for a total of ten in order to get the initial
low price from Michigan Instruments.
4. Our whole body fast gas vitrification cooldown system has completed
its major physical design and is now being mocked up in preparation for
final metal fabrication in about two weeks. We incurred significant
delays attempting to design a system working at a gas velocity of 60
MPH. Recent measurements indicate that gas speeds on the order of 10-12
MPH will suffice, and we are now back on track. This cooldown box will
enable SA to rapidly cool the patient to glass transition, perform an
annealing sequence and then slowly take the patient on down to storage
temperature (or remain at intermediate temperature when such storage
becomes available) all under automated computer control. The software
that drives the system has been complete for several months. The cooling
chamber itself, with 10 inches of foam insulation, was fabricated months
ago and doubles as a shipping container to move the patient to the
long-term storage facility. The cooling system can also provide
standard glycerolized freezing profiles. 21 CM has been a big help in
this effort.
5. The first whole body computer controlled patient perfusion enclosure
is complete and has demonstrated the ability to maintain a commanded
patient temperature environment from 5 C to well below -20C under
software control. In fact, the enclosure temperature can be programmed
to match perfusion temperature, all under automated control. The
enclosure is currently undergoing final modification to add a sump to
collect patient perfusate effluent, but is otherwise complete.
6. Progress continues on our computerized perfusion system. Our goal
here is to have a completely computer controlled, web integrated system
that will enable persons anywhere to participate in vitrification
experiments without having to leave their office. Pumps, refractometers,
thermometers, and pressure sensors have all been successfully
integrated. This is not a simple task and because it is operated on the
labview software platform, software experts are few and far between. If
anyone knows of a labview capable person that could help in this area we
would jump at the opportunity to contract them.

As I am sure everyone knows, we have a contract with the American
Cryonics Society to support its members. We are also getting a few
requests every week from members of other cryonics organizations for
information regarding how we may support their needs. This growing show
of support is particularly gratifying. As everyone also knows we do not
compete with existing cryonics companies but provide SBT and
cryopreservation services for everyone.

----------------------------------------------------------------------