Press Release

Max More (maxmore@primenet.com)
Sun, 5 Jan 1997 22:58:10 -0700 (MST)


>Date: Sat, 04 Jan 97 17:07:07
>From: Steve Bridge <steve@alcor.org>
>
>January 2, 1997
>
>*** PRESS RELEASE from ALCOR LIFE EXTENSION FOUNDATION ***
>
>For release on January 12, 1997 or sooner.
>
> Sunday, January 12, 1997 is a milestone in the history of the
>experimental technology of *cryonics*. Dr. James Bedford, the first
>human frozen to await treatment by future medicine, has been in his
>preserved state for 30 years.
>
> Although cryonics procedures currently may be practiced only on
>individuals who are labeled as legally "dead," adherents consider
>cryonic suspension to be a potential life-saving procedure. They
>expect that advanced medical technologies of the next century may be
>able to repair the ravages of disease, injury, freezing, and aging
>and return the patient to active, healthy life. They also
>anticipate that physicians will continue to redefine when truly
>irreversible "death" occurs, so that today's frozen patients may
>someday be considered alive and revivable.
>
> Dr. Bedford was a psychology professor at Glendale College in
>California. In 1966 he discovered he had terminal renal cancer. He
>had read *The Prospect of Immortality* by physics professor Robert
>C.W. Ettinger, the book which began the cryonics movement in 1964.
>With the help of his wife and son, Bedford arranged for a fledgling
>organization, Cryonics Society of California (now defunct), to place
>him into cryonic suspension. When his heart stopped on January 12
>at the age of 73, the cryonics volunteers injected protective fluids
>and slowly froze him to the temperature of liquid nitrogen (-320
>degrees F, -196 degrees C).
>
> In his long and adventurous life, Bedford had traveled the
>world, including an African safari and a trip up the Amazon River.
>His journeys since his cryonic suspension have been no less
>interesting.
>
> The suspension was crude, compared to today's procedures, and
>reliable companies for the protection of cryonics patients did not
>yet exist. Bedford's relatives first moved him to Phoenix, Arizona
>to be cared for at a company which manufactured the first cryonics
>storage units. Over the following decade, Bedford's dedicated
>family would move him to three different locations in California,
>including secret storage in a mini-warehouse.
>
> In 1982, representatives of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation
>contacted the family and offered to take permanent custody of Dr.
>Bedford's frozen body. From 1982 until 1994, Dr. Bedford was stored
>at Alcor's California facilities in Fullerton and Riverside.
>
> In March, 1994, Alcor moved Dr. Bedford, along with Alcor's
>other suspension patients, to its current headquarters in
>Scottsdale, Arizona.
>
> Today, there are approximately 70 total cryonics patients
>preserved in liquid nitrogen at -3200 F at four different cryonics
>companies (33 of that number are at Alcor). Several hundred other
>adventurous people have made the advance legal and financial
>arrangements to receive low temperature preservation when today's
>doctors are no longer able to save their lives.
>
> For a media information package about cryonics or to arrange
>interviews, please contact Steve Bridge or Brian Shock at Alcor Life
>Extension Foundation. Telephone 602-922-9013, Fax 602-922-9027 or
>e-mail steve@alcor.org or brian@alcor.org. Detailed information may
>also be located on Alcor's Web site at www.alcor.org.
>
>
>
>Stephen Bridge, President (steve@alcor.org)
>Alcor Life Extension Foundation
>Non-profit cryonic suspension services since 1972.
>7895 E. Acoma Dr., Suite 110, Scottsdale AZ 85260-6916
>Phone (602) 922-9013 (800) 367-2228 FAX (602) 922-9027
>info@alcor.org for general requests
>http://www.alcor.org
>
>
Max More, Ph.D.
more@extropy.org
http://www.primenet.com/~maxmore
President, Extropy Institute, Editor, Extropy
info-exi@extropy.org, http://www.extropy.org
(310) 398-0375