I signed up with Bay Area Cryonics Society in 1977, and changed to Alcor in 1985, along with my husband, Thomas Donaldson, a mathematician and writer, who is now a neuropreservation patient with Alcor, as of 2006. We changed because of the dynamism and research brought to Alcor by Mike Darwin and Jerry Leaf, both of whom I first met in 1979. I switched to CI about ten years ago after moving back to Australia.
A big reason for moving back to Australia was largely because as a result of the lawsuits engaged in by Alcor, the Dora Kent case and Donaldson’s lawsuit against the State of California for assisted suicide in the event of destruction of neural tissue by his brain tumour, my bipolar disorder became severe and I ran out of medical insurance. About this time, a young man in contact with Alcor committed suicide, and the response of a number of the Libertarian Alcor members was that “this must have been what he wanted” i.e. his death by suicide, and not cryonic suspension. As a person who has contemplated suicide, this was not an impressive response.
Whilst in Australia, I phoned Alcor to find out how the much-promised (over years) review of members paperwork was going, and the staff member (presumably being paid) was unable to make an international phone call, and unable to handle my anger at this ineptitude. I switched promptly to CI because Andy Zawacki made the call with grace and ease.
Subsequently on the cryonic suspension of Thomas, Alcor went against the stated wishes in his paperwork (that had a personal and potentially critically important justification), of not making public his suspension by doing so “informally”, after a staff member tried to coerce me to allow them to do so, using sarcasm when I refused and was in a crisis of shock and grief. There was a poor history of returning my phone calls whilst I was administering his estate, by senior Alcorians. Hugh Hixon and Mike Perry are notable exceptions.
During this severe period of my life, Ben Best and Andy Zawacki were sensitive and supportive, and good listeners. Hugh Hixon, Mike Perry and Aschwin have also been active in contacting me in a short time frame, and Hugh was supportive in the time immediately after the suspension. As Alcor has the copyright of Thomas’ published writings, and a number of people have contacted me wishing to read some of them again, the Alcor board was approached to allow me to do so. I have not heard from them in several months. Merkle was responsible for suppression some of Thomas’ writings critical of nanotechnology, so I hope this is an oversight and not suppression, or the policy that once a person is suspended and paid up there is no responsibility for the intellectual continuation of patients’ lives. This is hard particularly because of the personal and emotional costs of the euthanasia lawsuit. Most particularly, I wished to make his fiction more available to interested readers.
In summary, I am not surprised Alcor runs into difficulties with lawsuits. Cryonics is a “people business” as well as a technology provider, dealing with people in some of the most extreme emotional situations, and I think Alcor may do this side of the business poorly. I have the confidence that should I become irrational and suicidal, CI would have the skills to call me back to myself, so I remain with them, and try to put any spare cash into research or general running costs. At some point the immeasurably valuable quality of “the human touch” can be more important than technological accessories and certainly better than the lawsuits that its lack of possession may bring.
I signed up with Bay Area Cryonics Society in 1977, and changed to Alcor in 1985, along with my husband, Thomas Donaldson, a mathematician and writer, who is now a neuropreservation patient with Alcor, as of 2006. We changed because of the dynamism and research brought to Alcor by Mike Darwin and Jerry Leaf, both of whom I first met in 1979. I switched to CI about ten years ago after moving back to Australia.
A big reason for moving back to Australia was largely because as a result of the lawsuits engaged in by Alcor, the Dora Kent case and Donaldson’s lawsuit against the State of California for assisted suicide in the event of destruction of neural tissue by his brain tumour, my bipolar disorder became severe and I ran out of medical insurance. About this time, a young man in contact with Alcor committed suicide, and the response of a number of the Libertarian Alcor members was that “this must have been what he wanted” i.e. his death by suicide, and not cryonic suspension. As a person who has contemplated suicide, this was not an impressive response.
Whilst in Australia, I phoned Alcor to find out how the much-promised (over years) review of members paperwork was going, and the staff member (presumably being paid) was unable to make an international phone call, and unable to handle my anger at this ineptitude. I switched promptly to CI because Andy Zawacki made the call with grace and ease.
Subsequently on the cryonic suspension of Thomas, Alcor went against the stated wishes in his paperwork (that had a personal and potentially critically important justification), of not making public his suspension by doing so “informally”, after a staff member tried to coerce me to allow them to do so, using sarcasm when I refused and was in a crisis of shock and grief. There was a poor history of returning my phone calls whilst I was administering his estate, by senior Alcorians. Hugh Hixon and Mike Perry are notable exceptions.
During this severe period of my life, Ben Best and Andy Zawacki were sensitive and supportive, and good listeners. Hugh Hixon, Mike Perry and Aschwin have also been active in contacting me in a short time frame, and Hugh was supportive in the time immediately after the suspension. As Alcor has the copyright of Thomas’ published writings, and a number of people have contacted me wishing to read some of them again, the Alcor board was approached to allow me to do so. I have not heard from them in several months. Merkle was responsible for suppression some of Thomas’ writings critical of nanotechnology, so I hope this is an oversight and not suppression, or the policy that once a person is suspended and paid up there is no responsibility for the intellectual continuation of patients’ lives. This is hard particularly because of the personal and emotional costs of the euthanasia lawsuit. Most particularly, I wished to make his fiction more available to interested readers.
In summary, I am not surprised Alcor runs into difficulties with lawsuits. Cryonics is a “people business” as well as a technology provider, dealing with people in some of the most extreme emotional situations, and I think Alcor may do this side of the business poorly. I have the confidence that should I become irrational and suicidal, CI would have the skills to call me back to myself, so I remain with them, and try to put any spare cash into research or general running costs. At some point the immeasurably valuable quality of “the human touch” can be more important than technological accessories and certainly better than the lawsuits that its lack of possession may bring.