American Cryonics Society - History

History

The American Cryonics Society was first incorporated in 1969 in San Francisco as the Bay Area Cryonics Society (BACS); its name was changed to the American Cryonics Society in 1985. The founding of the company followed over two years of organizational meetings by cryonics activists. Signers of the founding charter included two well-known Bay Area physicians, Dr. M. Coleman Harris, and Dr. Grace Talbot. The 1969 incorporation date makes it the oldest US cryonics society, and arguably the oldest such society in the world. The Immortalist Society (IS), with which the American Cryonics Society works closely, is a successor to the Cryonics Society of Michigan whose founding predates that of the American Cryonics Society.

Since its beginning, the American Cryonics Society has made valuable contributions to research and methodology of freezing and cold storage of organs and organism. The first suspensions of humans under the ACS program were in 1974 through Trans Time, a company founded in 1972 by activist members of the American Cryonics Society (then BACS). This was followed by a succession of additional suspensions and ongoing research into methods of preservation and procedures for maintaining tissue, organs, and organisms at liquid nitrogen temperature.

Starting in 1974 ACS-sponsored research into establishing suspension procedures included development of "blood substitutes" and flushes to replace the blood in cryonic patients with a solution which had cryoprotective properties. Dr. Paul Segall was the chief researcher, and following a technological report that members of the press viewed as significant, Dr. Segall, Dr. Richard Marsh, and others appeared on Good Morning America, The Phil Donahue Show, The Sally Jessy Raphael Show, and made many other popular media appearances. Somewhat later, ACS President Dr. Avi Ben-Abraham also did a media blitz to publicize cryonics research. American Cryonics Society researchers would later develop commercial organ preservation solutions, based in part on ACS-sponsored research.

In May 1988, ACS researchers authored a paper, "Interventive Gerentology, Cloning, and Cryonics: Relevance to Life Extension," that was published in Biomedical Advances and edited by Allan L. Goldstein. The inclusion of this paper in a publication of serious academic inquiry properly identifies cryonics as scientific discipline.

Concurrent with biological research, the American Cryonics Society established financial and managerial policy to better safeguard the funds of members in suspension. This included funding through life insurance and conservative estimates of suspension and maintenance costs to ensure adequate funding. In 1981, the American Cryonics Society employed attorney Jim Bianchi to develop model trust and model will documents for people who wished suspension. Mr. Bianchi also researched the legal basis for cryonics, and developed a set of related documents.

In 1978, the Cryonics Society of America researchers collaborated with Jerry Leaf of Cryovita Laboratories in experiments that would apply the methodology to cryonic suspensions that were then in use as surgical procedures to treat patients with heart disease. Thus a team led by a thoracic surgeon and a perfusionist would use cardio-pulmonary resuscitation equipment and blood-pumps to quickly cool a patient, and replace his blood with a blood substitute containing cryoprotectants. For several years thereafter, Cryovita Laboratories led by Jerry Leaf and Mike Darwin, were responsible for the initial cryonic suspension of patients of the American Cryonics Society, which were then perfused, transported, and kept in cryogenic storage by Trans Time. This method of making use of contract companies as a means of risk management was unique to the American Cryonics Society and has been followed to the present day.

In 1992, the American Cryonics Society signed contracts with the newly formed CryoSpan Corporation and transferred a number of patients to that Southern California facility, as well as making use of CryoSpan services for a number of new patients. At about this same time it contracted with BioPreservation Inc., operated by Mike Darwin, to perform the standby and initial suspension of the Cryonics Society of America members. The American Cryonics Society also purchased suspension and “first response” equipment from Darwin and other suppliers to enable the American Cryonics Society to freeze its own members, to supplement its employment of contract companies.

In 2002 when CryoSpan opted to close down its long-term cryogenic storage operations, 10 ACS patients and a number of pets were transferred to the Cryonics Institute (CI) facility in Michigan. The American Cryonics Society had contracted with CI for the long-term cryogenic storage of a number of other members prior to the 2002 patient transfer. The ACS inspects CI yearly to ensure ACS quality standards are met. The extra funds charged to ACS members beyond CI minimums could be used for moving the patients in the future if necessary, or other uses.

In 2004, the American Cryonics Society signed a contract with Suspended Animation, a Florida based company, and in the same year Suspended Animation performed a stand-by and suspension on an ACS member living in Florida at the time of his death. The patient was then transported to the CI Facility in Michigan for long-term cryogenic storage. When circumstances warrant, neural vitrification technology may also be applied to ACS subjects by CI personnel prior to long-term cryogenic storage.