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Cooperation Defines Arizona Cryonics


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#1 joewaynick

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Posted 27 February 2004 - 01:19 AM


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http://www.alcor.org/

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Joseph A. Waynick, CEO and President Alcor
http://www.alcor.org...ff.html#waynick

Cooperation Not Confrontation Defines Future of Cryonics in Arizona

To All Alcor Members;

I am happy and proud to say that Alcor, its members, and the state of Arizona have won a great victory today!

Early Wednesday morning, Barry Aarons, Tanya Jones, and I met with Representative Stump and several of his advisors for nearly forty-five minutes to discuss HB 2637. We were very pleasantly surprised at the openness and flexibility demonstrated by Mr. Stump in our sometimes frank discussions. During that meeting, we were able to successfully communicate to him the sincere concerns we had with his bill as originally proposed and why our membership was so strongly opposed its passage.

It is our opinion that prior to this meeting, Mr. Stump sincerely did not understand the unintended negative consequences his bill would have on Alcor, its members, and on the science of cryopreservation as a whole.

After patiently listening to our concerns Mr. Stump expressed a willingness to modify several key provisions of the bill as a show of good faith to the constituents of this legislation in exchange for a commitment from us to continue dialogue for appropriate oversight of cryonics as practiced in the state of Arizona.

Since representation at the negotiation table is what we’ve been requesting from the day Alcor first became engaged in the legislative process, we were of course elated at the opportunity to sit with representatives of the legislature and their advisors in a spirit of cooperation and craft legislation that will provide the level of oversight legitimately required by the state while simultaneously securing protection for patient privacy, guaranteeing the constitutional right of self-determination of our members, and establishment once and for all the legislative legitimacy of cryonics.

At the conclusion of that meeting, Representative Stump demonstrated outstanding leadership and courage by agreeing in principle to consider amendments to his bill that would eliminate some of the most serious concerns of Alcor and its membership in a show of good faith. We were most impressed.

Today, literally an hour before the hearing was to begin, we received word that amendments had been filed and that Representative Stump was receptive to hearing the balance of our concerns that blocked agreement to a bill. After reviewing the amendments and exchanging negotiating points with Representative Stump that outlined some of our remaining issues we were able to secure the following understanding:

1. Alcor’s ability to utilize the UAGA was restored via amendment;

2. The requirement for an embalmer to store our patients or participate in our procedures was struck from the bill via amendment;

3. In addition, we committed to meet with all interested parties and seek agreement upon the following:

a. Expand the Funeral Board by up to two members to include experts in the field of cryopreservation or change the composition of the existing board to include up to two experts in the field of cryopreservation;

b. Require a cryopreservation expert on the staff of the Funeral Board to execute oversight;

c. To establish the statutory legitimacy of cryonics through a legislated definition of cryopreservation;

d. Define the scope of the oversight through legislation and not left singularly up to a rules committee;

e. To extend the effective date of the bill to September 1, 2005 to leave open our option of legislative redress in the unlikely event that appropriate rules cannot be agreed upon between Alcor and the Funeral Board.

Due to the good faith agreements obtained prior to the committee hearing in conjunction with the proposed amendments, Alcor reduced its opposition to passage of HB 2637 on the condition that agreement can be reached on the verbal understandings listed above.

It should be noted that several members of the Health Committee expressed reservations about having Alcor overseen by the Funeral Board, but conceded that if legislation were necessary, it would be placed there but reserve the right to find a more appropriate place to house cryonics oversight in the future. Moreover, many of the committee members reserved the right to change their vote when the bill is presented on the House floor if agreements cannot be reached on the aforementioned items. Our heartfelt gratitude, respect and admiration go out to the courageous Representatives who agreed to support our cause.

After the hearing, I had the opportunity to have some very constructive dialogue with Randy Bunker and Rudy Thomas who both enthusiastically looked forward to engaging Alcor and finalizing the framework of the proposed oversight.

The progress of today’s hearing would not have been possible without the tireless efforts of a number of good people, including Barry Aarons, David Brandt-Erichsen, Saul Kent, Tanya Jones, Aubrey de Grey, and Steve Rude. In addition, we must thank all the brave souls who traveled to Phoenix to testify but were unable to do so due to legislative time constraints including Steve Harris, Mark and Judy Muhlestein, Ted and Bobby Kraver, Jim Lewis, and two organ preservation scientists who wish to remain anonymous.

We must also thank those members who attended the hearing as a public show of support for Alcor. Lastly, but certainly not least, we must thank all of the members who took time away from their busy schedules to eMail, fax, and call Arizona state legislators, urging them to oppose this bill. When they revealed to us that they were receiving from 150-200 eMails per day we realized that you all really made a difference! Thank you!!!

Joe Waynick
CEO/President
Alcor Life Extension Foundation



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Alcor Life Extension Foundation
7895 E. Acoma Dr., Suite 110, Scottsdale AZ 85260-6916
Membership Information: (877) GO-ALCOR (462-5267)
Phone (480) 905-1906 FAX (480) 922-9027
info@alcor.org for general requests.

Visit our website at: http://www.alcor.org or to subscribe to our monthly newsletter go to: http://four.pairlist...tinfo/AlcorNews.

The Alcor Life Extension Foundation was founded in 1972 as a non-profit, tax-exempt 501©(3) organization, and has 59 patients in cryostasis. Alcor is the world's largest provider of professional cryotransport services with over 660 members who have pre-arranged for cryopreservation. Alcor's Emergency CryoTransport System (ECS) is a medical-style rescue network patterned after Emergency Medical System (EMS). Alcor CryoTransport Technicians, as with EMTs and Paramedics on an ambulance, are advised by our Medical Director and Advisory Board consisting of MDs, PhDs, Cryobiologists, scientists, and other members of the scientific research community who are Alcor members and/or contract physicians.

#2 Bruce Klein

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Posted 27 February 2004 - 02:26 AM

Thanks Joe.

Beautiful Job. Please know ImmInst is here to help via ImmInst Legal Team (ILT) for future projects.

ILT - http://www.imminst.org/ilt

PS: you have an open invitation to join imminst for a chat Sunday's.
- ImmInst Chat Archive

---

Archive of the ImmInst Discussion of Alcor - AZ Cryonics, found here:

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Cryonics - AZ Regulation - Arizona legislation is being considered that could limit Alcor's effectiveness as a cryonics facility. HB 2637 - Passed Health Committee The circumstances appear favorable.

#3 Kallazze

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Posted 27 February 2004 - 05:27 AM

Way to go!!!!!

#4 Bruce Klein

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Posted 27 February 2004 - 10:29 AM

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Cryonics CEO favors regulation - It would elevate status, he says
http://www.azcentral...alcorceo27.html

Peter Corbett
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 27, 2004 12:00 AM


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Carlos Chavez/The Arizona Republic

Joe Waynick is the new chief executive officer of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, the nation's largest cryonics firm.


Arizona lawmakers' plans to regulate cryonics will elevate the legitimacy of the practice of freezing the dead in the hopes of reviving them in the future, says the chief of Scottsdale-based Alcor.

Joe Waynick, the new chief executive officer of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, is not opposed to state oversight, but he does reject regulation by the Arizona Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers.

The board would oversee cryonics firms under legislation introduced this month by Rep. Bob Stump, R-Peoria.

"The funeral board has no concept of what we do," said Waynick, who compared Alcor's mission with that of companies that harvest organs for transplantation.

He complained that Alcor was ambushed by Stump's bill and was not included in meetings to discuss regulation of cryonics until the last minute.

The pending legislation is just one of the issues that Waynick must address as president and CEO of the non-profit cyronics company, the nation's largest.

Alcor has 59 clients stored in its Scottsdale Airpark facility and 659 members signed up for cryo-preservation.

The firm's most famous client sparked a family legal dispute last year. A controversy over whether late baseball slugger Ted Williams wanted to be cremated or frozen has remained a black cloud over Alcor since the death of the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame outfielder in July 2002.

Amid internal strife last year, ex-Alcor executive Larry Johnson alleged that the company did not have the proper authorization to cryogenically preserve Williams and mishandled his body while preparing it for storage, a procedure that included decapitation.

Johnson resigned but not before copying documents and secretly tape-recording other Alcor executives. He later shared the documents and recordings with news media.

Alcor and Johnson have exchanged lawsuits.

Alcor, founded in 1972, is also under investigation by Los Angeles police over whether it hastened the death of a patient there in 1992.

For confidentiality reasons, he would not confirm that Williams is in Alcor's storage tanks or whether his children, John Henry and Claudia, have signed up for cyro-preservation.

The new CEO, who has a background in the military, banking and information technology, did address Alcor's being under the microscope the past two years.

"I don't see how we can ever avoid controversy entirely because cryonics is such a cutting-edge science," Waynick said.

He said he wants to do a better job of getting the organization's message out.

Alcor board member Carlos Mondragon said that Waynick was hired because his background includes executive management positions at a number of companies.

"He has the ability to professionally manage the staff and the day-to-day operations of the company, plus the financial discipline we were weak on before," Mondragon said.

Since joining Alcor seven weeks ago, Waynick has focused on rewriting job descriptions for its 15 full-time employees, formalizing policies and establishing more administrative structure for a company that has long relied on volunteers.

Waynick's background includes a stint in the Marine Corps as a computer programmer. He was a programmer and later an executive in information technology for Union Bank of California. In 1997, Waynick joined American Express in Phoenix as an information technology vice president.

Two years ago, he acquired Custom Impressions, a Phoenix printing company that he still owns.

#5 bacopa

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Posted 27 February 2004 - 12:49 PM

This is very very exciting

#6 Omnido

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Posted 06 March 2004 - 12:48 AM

Well, for once we came out for the better.
Id very much like to witness this trend on a consistant basis.

#7 thefirstimmortal

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Posted 06 March 2004 - 02:57 PM

I'm not nearly as optimistic about the camel getting his nose in the tent, but it would appear that disaster has been at least postponed.




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