ALCOR Life Extension Foundation: Best Second Chance

By Phoenix New Times Staff Wed., Oct. 10 2012 at 8:00 AM

Categories: Best of Phoenix 2012

Photo by Claire Lawton

Max More, CEO of ALCOR Life Extension Foundation, in the ALCOR patient containment area.

We've spent the last year in the laboratory putting Phoenix under the microscope to reveal hundreds of specimens of the best culture, outdoor adventures, shopping, dining, and nightlife the city has to offer. And we're finally ready to publish our results. Nerd alert! Now presenting Scientific Phoenix.

Within the walls of a building near the Scottsdale Air Park, Max More, CEO of ALCOR Life Extension Foundation, keeps a watchful eye over his "patients." Here, about 100 bodies or body parts (namely, heads) sit in liquid nitrogen and wait for the time when they're brought back to life.

ALCOR (which stands for Allopathic Cryogenic Rescue) specializes in cryonics, the science of preserving bodies at sub-zero temperatures for eventual reanimation, possibly centuries from now. The Scottsdale facility currently has 70 "neuros" (or heads, including that of baseball great Ted Williams) and 42 whole bodies on ice, ranging from 21 to 101 years old at the time of preservation.

The process of preserving patients is relatively straightforward -- More and his team collect a patient's body after he or she is legally pronounced dead, technicians remove body fluids and replace them with medical-grade antifreeze, and then they load the bodies, or heads, into large, stainless steel containers called dewers, where they'll remain for the foreseeable future. The cost of extended life isn't cheap -- membership runs around $200,000 for full-body preservation and $80,000 for the preservation of a head -- but More is a staunch believer. "I've always been interested in life extension," More says. "I don't believe in an afterlife, and if there is an afterlife, it's infinite, so why are we in such a rush to get there?"

Check out the complete edition of Best of Phoenix® 2012.

...And take a scientific journey through the Best of Phoenix® 2012 micro-site.