The Alcor Life Extension Foundation,
most often referred to as Alcor, is a
Scottsdale, Arizona, USA-based nonprofit
organization that researches, advocates
for and performs cryonics, the
preservation of humans in liquid
nitrogen after legal death, with hopes
of restoring them to full health when
new technology is developed in the
future.
As of July 31, 2015, Alcor had 1041
members, 170 associate members and 139
humans in cryopreservation, many as
neuropatients. Alcor also cryopreserves
the pets of members. As of November 15,
2007, there were 33 pets in suspension.
Alcor accepts anatomical donations under
the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act and
Arizona Anatomical Gift Act for research
purposes, reinforced by a court case in
its favor that affirmed a constitutional
right to engage in cryopreservation and
donate one's body for the purpose. A
form of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act
has been passed in all 50 states.
History
The organization was established as a
nonprofit organization by Fred and Linda
Chamberlain in California in 1972 as the
Alcor Society for Solid State
Hypothermia. Alcor was named after a
faint star in the Big Dipper. The name
was changed to Alcor Life Extension
Foundation in 1977. The organization was
conceived as a rational,
technology-oriented cryonics
organization that would be managed on a
fiscally conservative basis. Alcor
advertised in direct mailings and
offered seminars in order to attract
members and bring attention to the
cryonics movement. The first of these
seminars attracted 30 people.
On July 16, 1976, Alcor performed its
first human cryopreservation on Fred
Chamberlain's father. That same year,
research in cryonics began with initial
funding provided by the Manrise
Corporation. At that time, Alcor’s
office consisted of a mobile surgical
unit in a large van. Trans Time, Inc., a
cryonics organization in the San
Francisco Bay area, provided initial
preservation procedures and long-term
patient storage until Alcor began doing
its own storage in 1982.
In 1977, articles of incorporation were
filed in Indianapolis by the Institute
for Advanced Biological Studies and
Soma, Inc. IABS was a nonprofit research
startup led by a young cryonics
enthusiast named Steve Bridge, while
Soma was intended as a for-profit
organization to provide cryopreservation
and human storage services. Its
president, Mike Darwin, subsequently
became a president of Alcor. Bridge
filled the same position many years
later. IABS and Soma relocated to
California in 1981. Soma was disbanded,
while IABS merged with Alcor in 1982.
In 1978, Cryovita Laboratories was
founded by Jerry Leaf, who had been
teaching surgery at UCLA. Cryovita was a
for-profit organization which provided
cryopreservation and transport services
for Alcor in the 1980s until Leaf's
death, at which time Alcor began
providing these services on its own.
Leaf and Michael Darwin collaborated to
bring the first cryonics patient, Dr.
James Bedford, who was preserved in
1967, to Alcor's California facility in
1982.
During this time, Leaf also collaborated
with Michael Darwin in a series of
hypothermia experiments in which dogs
were resuscitated with no measurable
neurological deficit after hours in deep
hypothermia, just a few degrees above
zero Celsius. The blood substitute which
was developed for these experiments
became the basis for the washout
solution used at Alcor. Together, Leaf
and Darwin developed a standby-transport
model for human cryonics cases with the
goal of intervening immediately after
cardiac arrest and minimizing ischemic
injury. Leaf was cryopreserved by Alcor
in 1991; since 1992, Alcor has provided
its own cryopreservation as well as
patient-storage services. Today, Alcor
is the only full-service cryonics
organization that performs remote
standbys.
Alcor grew slowly in its early years. In
1984, it merged with the Cryonics
Society of South Florida. Alcor counted
only 50 members in 1985, which was the
year it cryopreserved its third patient.
However, during this time researchers
associated with Alcor contributed some
of the most important techniques related
to cryopreservation, eventually leading
to today's method of vitrification.
Increasing growth in membership during
this period is partially attributed to
the 1986 publication of Eric Drexler's
Engines of Creation, which debuted the
idea of nanotechnology and contained a
chapter on cryonics. In 1986, a group of
Alcor members formed Symbex, a small
investment company which funded a
building in Riverside, California, for
lease by Alcor. Alcor moved from
Fullerton, California, to the new
building in Riverside in 1987; Timothy
Leary appeared at the grand opening.
Alcor cryopreserved a member’s companion
animal in 1986, and two people in 1987.
Three human cases were handled in 1988,
including the first whole body patient
of Alcor's, and one in 1989. At that
time, Alcor owned 20% interest in
Symbex, with a goal of 51% ownership. In
September 1988, Leary announced that he
had signed up with Alcor, becoming the
first celebrity to become an Alcor
member. Leary later switched to a
different cryonics organization,
CryoCare, and then changed his mind
altogether. Alcor's Vice-President,
Director, head of suspension team and
chief surgeon, Jerry Leaf, died suddenly
of a heart attack in 1991.
By 1990, Alcor had grown to 300 members
and outgrown its California
headquarters, which was the largest
cryonics facility in the world. The
organization wanted to remain in
Riverside County, but in response to
concerns that the California facility
was also vulnerable to earthquake risk,
the organization purchased a building in
Scottsdale, Arizona in 1993 and moved
its patients to it in 1994.
Alcor has held seven conferences on life
extension technologies, with
participants such as Eric Drexler, Ralph
Merkle, Ray Kurzweil, Aubrey de Grey,
Timothy Leary, Barbara Marx Hubbard, and
Michael D. West.
As of May 31, 2015, Alcor has 1,332
members. Also as of 2015, the oldest
patient to have undergone
cryopreservation procedures at Alcor is
Rose Selkovitch, A-2340, who was nearly
102 years old at the time. The youngest
is Matheryn Naovaratpong, A-2789, two
years old at the time of her
cryopreservation.
Alcor's next conference will take place
in October 2015.
Research
In 2001, Alcor adapted cryoprotectant
formulas from published scientific
literature into a more concentrated
formula capable of achieving ice-free
preservation of the human brain. In
2005, the vitrification process was
applied to the first whole-body subject.
This resulted in vitrification of the
brain and conventional cryopreservation
of the rest of the body. Work is
continuing towards achieving whole-body
vitrification, which is limited by the
ability to fully circulate the
cryoprotectant throughout the body. The
vitrification used since 2000 was
switched to what Alcor said was a
superior solution in 2005. Canadian
businessman, Robert Miller, founder of
Future Electronics, has provided
research funding to Alcor in the past.
Policies and procedures
Alcor is governed by a self-perpetuating
board of directors. Alcor's Scientific
Advisory Board currently consists of
Antonei Csoka, Aubrey de Grey, Robert
Freitas, Bart Kosko, James B. Lewis,
Ralph Merkle, Marvin Minsky, Martine
Rothblatt, and Michael D. West. Alcor
also maintains a medical advisory board
consisting of medical doctors.
Most Alcor patients fund the procedure
through life insurance policies which
name Alcor as the beneficiary. Members
who have signed up wear medical alert
bracelets informing hospitals and
doctors to notify Alcor in case of any
emergency; in the case of a person who
is known to be near death, Alcor can
send a team for remote standby.
In some states, members can sign
certificates stating that they wish to
decline an autopsy. The cutting of the
body organs and blood vessels required
for an autopsy makes it difficult to
either preserve the body, especially the
brain, without damage or perfuse the
body with glycerol. The optimum
preservation procedure begins less than
one hour after death. Members can
specify whether they wish Alcor to
attempt to preserve even if an autopsy
occurs, or whether they wish to be
buried or cremated if an autopsy renders
little hope for preservation.
In cases with remote standby,
cardiopulmonary support is begun as soon
as a patient is declared legally dead.
Some patients were not able to receive
cardiopulmonary support immediately, but
in deference to the possibilities of
future technology, these patients have
also been preserved with the best
techniques available. Alcor has a
network of paramedics nationwide and
seven surgeons, located in different
regions, who are on call 24 hours a day.
If an Alcor patient is met by a standby
team, the team will perform CPR to
maintain blood flow to the brain and
organs while simultaneously pumping an
organ preservation solution through the
veins.
Patients are transported as quickly as
possible to Alcor headquarters in
Scottsdale, where they undergo final
preparations in Alcor's cardiopulmonary
bypass lab. Plans are underway for a
second operating room to be built. In
the Patient Care Bay, patients are
monitored by computer sensors while kept
in liquid nitrogen in dewars. Liquid
nitrogen is refilled on a weekly basis
and does not need electricity to
operate. Riverside County, California
deputy coroner Dan Cupido said that
Alcor had better equipment than some
medical facilities.
Membership dues cover one-third of
Alcor's yearly budget, with donations
and case income from cryopreservations
covering the rest. Alcor receives
$50,000 each year from television
royalties donated by a sitcom writer and
producer who are in suspension. In 1997,
after a substantial effort led by
then-president Steve Bridge, Alcor
formed the Patient Care Trust as an
entirely separate entity to manage and
protect the funding for cryopatients,
including owning the building. Alcor
remains the only cryonics organization
to segregate and protect patient funding
in this way; the 2% annual growth of the
Trust is enough for upkeep of the
patients. At least $115,000 of the money
received for each full-body patient goes
into this trust for future patient care,
$25,000 for a neuropatient. Alcor is
currently working to create an Alcor
Model Trust, which would make it easier
for members to establish their own
Trusts to preserve their assets
following legal death and prior to being
revived from cryopreservation. Some
members have already taken steps to do
this on their own. Members can also
store possessions deep underground in a
Kansas salt mine operated by Underground
Vaults & Storage, Inc.
Further information about Alcor policies
and procedures is available from their
FAQs.
Membership
Members suspended include Dick Clair, an
Emmy Award-winning television sitcom
writer and producer, Hall of Fame
baseball legend Ted Williams and his son
John Henry Williams, and futurist
FM-2030.
Notable current members include:
researcher Aubrey de Grey,
nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler,
engineer Keith Henson and his family,
entrepreneur Saul Kent, inventor Ray
Kurzweil, casino owner Don Laughlin, 
film director Charles Matthau, PayPal
founder and venture capitalist Peter
Thiel, Internet pioneer Ralph Merkle,
Canadian businessman Robert Miller, MIT
professor Marvin Minsky, futurists Max
More and Natasha Vita-More, entrepreneur
Luke Nosek, mathematician Edward O.
Thorp, talk radio host Mark Edge, and
computer security CEO Kenneth Weiss.
Magazine publisher Althea Flynt was
signed up to Alcor, but her body was not
able to be preserved after her death,
which resulted in an autopsy. One Alcor
member died in the World Trade Center in
the September 11 attacks.
Membership has grown at a rate of about
eight percent a year since Alcor's
inception, tripling between 1987 and
1990. The oldest patient at Alcor is a
101-year-old woman, and the youngest is
a 2-year-old girl. Alcor has had
patients from as far as Australia. One
in four of its members resides in the
San Francisco Bay Area.
The membership receives Alcor's
magazine, Cryonics, published 12 times a
year, but it's also available online for
free.
Controversies
= Dora Kent=
Before the company moved to Arizona from
Riverside, California in 1994, it became
a center of controversy when a county
coroner ruled that Alcor client Dora
Kent was murdered with barbiturates
before her head was removed for
neuropreservation by the company's
staff. Alcor contended that the drug was
administered after her death. No charges
were ever filed; former Riverside County
deputy coroner Alan Kunzman later
claimed that this was due to mistakes
and poor decision-making by others in
his office.
A judge ruled that Kent was already
deceased at the time of preservation,
and no foul play was involved. Alcor
sued the county for false arrest and
illegal seizure and won both suits. The
incident is credited with spurring a
growth in membership for Alcor due to
the resultant publicity.
= Ted Williams=
In 2002, Alcor drew considerable
attention when baseball star Ted
Williams was placed in cryonic
suspension; although Alcor maintains
privacy of its patients if they wish and
did not disclose that Williams was at
the Scottsdale facility, the situation
came to light in court documents that
grew out of an extended family dispute
over Williams' wishes in regard to his
remains. While Williams' children
Claudia and John Henry contended that
Williams wished to be preserved at
Alcor, their half-sister and oldest
Williams child Bobby-Jo Ferrell
contested that her father wished to be
cremated. Williams' attorney produced a
note signed by Williams, John Henry, and
Claudia saying: "JHW, Claudia and Dad
all agree to be put into biostasis after
we die. This is what we want, to be able
to be together in the future, even if it
is only a chance." John Henry later
said, "He was very into science and
believed in new technology and human
advancement and was a pioneer. Even
though things seemed impossible at
times, he always knew there was always a
chance to catch a fish -- only if you
had your fly in the water."
In 2003, Sports Illustrated published
allegations by former Alcor COO Larry
Johnson that the company had mishandled
Williams' head by drilling holes and
accidentally cracking it. Johnson also
claimed that some of Williams' DNA was
missing; the article alleges that
Williams' son, John Henry Williams,
desired to sell some of his father's
DNA, a charge John Henry denied.
Williams' attorney called the DNA
allegations an "absurd proposition" and
accused Johnson of trying to grab
headlines. Alcor denied the allegations
of missing DNA and explained that
microscopic cracking can result as part
of the process of freezing the head,
damage which is less than previous
methods using glycerol during
cryopreservation; Alcor believes that
technology sufficient to revive its
patients would also be able to repair
the microscopic fractures, which are
monitored using a tiny microphone. In
the wake of the Sports Illustrated
story, Johnson began a paid-membership
website where he displayed what he said
were photographs of Williams.
John Henry Williams subsequently died of
leukemia, and his remains are also
stored at Alcor. After John Henry's
death, Ferrell again filed a lawsuit,
but representatives of Williams' estate
repeated that he wished to be at Alcor.
= 1992 death=
In addition to his Williams allegations,
Johnson handed over to the police a
taped conversation in which he claims
Alcor facilities engineer Hugh Hixon
stated that an Alcor employee
deliberately hastened the imminent 1992
death of a terminally ill AIDS patient,
with an injection of Metubine, a
paralytic drug. The nurse who pronounced
the 1992 death has denied Johnson's
claim that there was any hastening of
death. The nurse's claim that the
patient died in his bedroom contradicts
Alcor's own 1992 case report, in which
they state the patient died
approximately 30 minutes after they
transported him to a makeshift operating
room, in a garage. In 2009, Carlos
Mondragon,, told ABC News he had been
made aware of the allegations, at the
time of the case, and as a result, had
severed Alcor's ties with the employee
who allegedly hastened the patient's
death. Mr. Mondragon failed to inform
ABC News that the same person later
performed Alcor's surgical procedures,
including the suspension of Ted
Williams.
See also
Information-theoretic death
References
External links
Official website
Official websites for Mission
Statement, Cryonics magazine, News
Blog, FAQs
Oberhaus, Daniel. "The Art of Not
Dying". Vice.
