Kim Suozzi cryopreserved January 17 at Alcor
January 19, 2013
Kim Suozzi before her diagnosis
Kim Suozzi, diagnosed at age 21 with brain cancer while studying neuroscience at college, passed away Thursday, January 17, 2013 at age 23.
The Society for Venturism, a cryonics advocacy and support group, started a charity fund for her cryonic suspension in August of 2012 and through an overwhelming amount of support from the extreme life extension community, enough funds were raised for her to be cryopreserved with Alcor.
She had a successful standby and suspension and now is in stasis at Alcor Life Extension Foundation. Alcor CEO Max More announced today that Alcor will be publishing a brief summary of her suspension and details about her memorial in the next few days on the Alcor blog.
The Society for Venturism is thankful to have helped fulfill her last wish to be cryopreserved in the hopes that she will be able to finish her life someday.
Kim knew about the next charity recipient that the Society for Venturism is taking on for 2013, a man struggling with ALS, Aaron Winborn. She wrote to him on Dec. 13, 2012 saying that she wanted to help promote his charity, and also hoped that people who supported her would support his case. She was hopeful that the Society for Venturism would be successful in gathering donations for further charity cases in the future. She apologized to him for not helping more, explaining that her condition had deteriorated.
He responded to her; “My condition as well is beginning to worsen; my breathing has declined considerably, and my FVC has reached 25%, far below the threshold of 35%, when respiratory failure is imminent and can happen at any time. My only option at this point is to opt for invasive mechanical ventilation, which may give me a 50% chance of surviving a year.” Sadly, Kim’s health kept her from being able to help Aaron as much as she wanted, and also his own health has kept him from being as active as he would like.
Here is a link to Aaron’s story that he submitted to the Society for Venturism in November 2012: http://www.venturist.info/aaron-winborn-charity.html
It includes a button where you can donate if you are able. Every amount helps as this is the very beginning of the cryonics charity campaign for Aaron and it is not known how much time he has, as his condition has deteriorated more rapidly than expected since November.
Kim was very thankful for all the support she received. The Society for Venturism has started collecting funds for him and is working with him to have the funds ready for the cryonics organization he contracts with.
Kurzweil AI’s readership was instrumental in helping Kim be cryopreserved and hopefully many will again choose to help with Aaron’s case. All funds collected go to the cryonics organization that the recipient has contracted with, and not to the individual directly. Leftover funds, if there are any after a recipient is preserved, will go to help a future charity recipient.
Shannon Vyff is Society for Venturism Director, Alcor and Cryonics Institute Member, and LongeCity/ImmInst Director
Comments (25)
by Mike
Met her a Alcor Conference last year. What a wonderful, smart, sweet lady with the insight to take action to possible extend her life. Befriended her on facebook a couple of weeks ago. I cherish this friend and hopefully will see her sometime in the future.
by H.K. Fauskanger
If the salient information is preserved by cryonics — and we don’t really know that before the first successful resurrection is performed — I have little doubt that the technology to do it will be available in a century or two. Maybe even earlier, if we are talking “only” about a brain scan followed by software reimplementation. Some serious thinkers believe that can be done around 2050.
My greatest worry is rather that the future may belong to superintelligent non-biological entities who think they have far better things to do than to reawaken the little minds of primitive primates, even if they could easily do it. But if they feel at least some lingering gratitude towards the historically important species that facilitated the transfer from biological to technological evolution, maybe they can be bothered to do it, after all. Let’s cross our fingers that even the future superminds are able to feel moved by a story like that of Kim.
by charles zeller
Cryonics seems so primitive. If I were guessing I imagine that the future holds uploading one’s brain (software) into an android with characteristics more suitable to life in the universe(s). This would be the likeliest human survival mode.
by Gabriel
I remember what Ben Goertzal said…..”better alive then frozen, better frozen than buried”.
You are right, life preservation technologies are simply too primitive right now; but given what is available, Cryonics is still the best choice over the alternatives, which are burial or cremation, which both (especially the latter) don’t leave much to work with.
by Ian
Very, very sad. Seems like a shot in a billion to me, but I guess even that is better than nothing. Terribly unfair.
by Bruce Wright
Agree that it’s probably a long shot, but here’s hoping that it does work for her.
Terribly sad.
by Erik
It wasn’t long ago I read about her… and now she is gone.. or cryopreserved I should say… Maybe she will read the comments here, in some old web archive, hundred years into the future…
by DAG
Hundreds of years in the future??
You should read some books by this guy “Ray Kurzweil”.. there is good reason to believe that in well under 100 years we’ll be seeing these people brought back.
by Tau
So what happens to Kim if Alcor goes bankrupt at some point before she is revived? Is there some arrangement that ensures her stasis is maintained? Or do they simply pull the plug?
by J.R.
There is a separate trust fund that takes care of the patients. It is unaffected by happening at Alcor. Most of the money collected for cryopreservation goes into that fund, very little is used up front. The fund has millions of dollars in it, only a small part of the interest generated is used each year to pay for nitrogen and rent, etc. so it is very stable.
by Percival
I take it from the article that she was pronounced “clinically dead”, in other words she is legally deceased in the eyes of the law. So I suppose, if the funding were to cease, then they would stop preserving her body. Or is this a one time fee? I imagined that being cryopreserved, potentially for decades, could be quite costly, electricity and maintenance-wise.
by Shannon Vyff
With cryonics there is a one time payment, it is usually paid out of life insurance. No electricity is used for upkeep, and a preserved patients carbon footprint is just pennies each year (from the liquid nitrogen that keeps them in storage) Yes, cryonics is done only on someone who is clinically dead.
by Khannea Suntzu
If I could find sponsors I’d use this option too, and I don’t even have any terminal diseases. Best not to be ‘alive’ in the coming crisis.
by Leo Allen
You’re right about the coming crisis. We should prepare. No time to waste. May God be with us.
by H.K. Fauskanger
What “crisis” would that be? Honestly, let’s not make “singularityism” a pseudo-religion with its own eschatology. The future is good and bad, very much like the present and the past. If some equivalent of Skynet is going to fry us anyway, being frozen isn’t that helpful. If you’re alive, you at least get to see how it ends, so to speak. And it isn’t NECESSARILY a foregone conclusion that an emerging superintelligence would be hostile to humans …
by Giulio Prisco
Rest in peace Kim, I hope to meet you in a couple of centuries or so.
It is very good to hear that Kurzweil AI’s readership was instrumental in helping Kim be cryopreserved, and I also hope that many will again choose to help with Aaron’s case.
by LeFinitDeMorte
Rest safely, Kim. We will wait for you to wake up.
by snake0
It only costs 32k? Can you choose to freeze yourself if you are living or do you have to die first?
by Gerry
Sign up if you want. But yes you must wait to be pronounced dead. Not a good idea to do while “alive” currently when no one has been relived yet.
by Alex
I thought the Alcor website says it costs $200,000…?
by Editor
I have removed cost information from this article.
by Shannon Vyff
If you relocate to the Phoenix area when terminal, an Alcor neuro-suspension is 70K. You can learn more about the pricing structures of Alcor and Cryonics Institute from their websites, a whole body at CI is 28K but does not include stand-by. Anyone interested in setting up cryonics arrangements should research the policies and procedures at both organizations.
by Shannon Vyff
Cryonics Institute is 28K for a whole body suspension, that is the most inexpensive way to be cryopreserved but you do have to arrange your transportation there, some choose to relocate to a hospice near the cryonics organization of their choice. A neuro-suspension at Alcor is 70K if you relocate to Alcor when are are terminal, it includes stand-by which CI does not-you can read much more about their different procedures at Alcor’s and Cryonics Institute’s sites. Most people set up arrangements with a cryonics organization and pay for them out of their life insurance. You do have to be legally dead to be cryo-preserved. Currently the state of OR has physician assisted suicide for those who are terminal, but no one yet has been cryo-preserved that has used that.
by Carson
We need to get chemically brain preservation as a second option for people that want to be preserved. It’s so much cheaper. Ken Hayworth is working on it at the brain preservation foundation.
by Gabriel
Thank you KurzweilAI team for regularly updating us on her status; I really wish her all the best in her future….she deserves to live a life without her condition…let’s hope the exponential pace of technology means she can rejoin us, sooner rather then later.