The New York Times has an extensive article ("Even for the Last .400 Hitter, Cryonics Is the Longest Shot", by M. Janofsky, 9 July 2002) on the controversy sparked by the cryonic suspension of baseball great Ted Williams at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation facility in Arizona:
Sent here by his son, Williams, the Boston Red Sox slugger who died last week at 83, has become the 50th — and by far the most famous — "patient" at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, which preserves bodies in the hope that breakthroughs in medical science will someday make it possible to resuscitate them.
The article notes: "All of this has elevated the profile of Alcor and its president and chief executive, Dr. Jerry B. Lemler. Since the weekend, when reporters indicated that Williams's body was being sent here, the phones have rung incessantly and the Alcor Web site, www.alcor.org, has been clogged with visitors, said Dr. Lemler, a lifelong Yankees fan from New Rochelle, N.Y."
"This has raised public awareness about cryonics and about Alcor," Dr. Lemler said. "We're under scrutiny like never before, and we welcome it. We were anxious for so many years to be able to state our philosophies, our goals, our convictions, as well as our prices and our disclaimers."
