It appears Luke has been subjected to the same propaganda that has kept cryonics in the dark ages, for many decades.
Luke: "I am skeptical that there is so much money to go around at those organizations.
Luke must be unaware of the budgets of SA and Alcor, and of the additional millions of dollars LEF pours into CCR, 21CM, TransTime, etc., each year.
Luke: "The prices are high, but the volume is low and overhead is nontrivial. Replacing staff entirely with doctors would probably be very expensive."
The overhead could be LOT less than it is, and there is no need to replace the staffs entirely with doctors. You need someone capable of doing a femoral cannulation, (this could be someone who has worked in animal research, or a retired physician assistant who has worked in heart surgery). You need someone capable of gaining IV access on a patient with no blood pressure. Hiring a retired paramedic, or even just having a paramedic group who will provide someone on a "per diem" basis, (with an iron-clad contract requiring someone to show up for cases, of course), would be great, for this purpose. And, you need a perfusionist.
Luke: "You would most likely need to pay significantly more than the industry standard in order to attract them, since cryonics is not widely recognized as a medical occupation.'
This is so not true. I worked at SA for about 75% of what my peers were earning and, if it had not been for what I perceived as a lot of extremely unethical and unprofessional behavior there, it would have been the best job I ever had in my life. The facility was six miles from my home, and the schedule was flexible, so I could come and go as I pleased. Unlike heart surgery, where I was frequently called in the middle of the night, or on the weekends, we didn't have even one case, while I was at SA. In addition, there were some really excellent benefits, like four weeks of paid vacation.
Luke: "The mission of a cryo org is to be an ambulance to the future, not to fix what is wrong with the patient. It makes sense to have well-trained laypersons doing most of the work. The team isn't there to diagnose any illness or treat any condition. The most important part is being in the right place at the right time, and following the correct procedure.
I'm sorry, but a team of laymen is likely to be able to gain IV access on a patient with no blood pressure, and even more unlikely to perform a whole-body washout perfusion procedure, without inflicting additional, (and probably severe), damage.
Luke: "Actually designing the procedure in the first place, training the team to follow it properly, evaluating performance, etc. are the areas where a specialist is most called for."
Paramedics and perfusionists spend many months, performing procedures on human patients, with an experienced instructor standing over their shoulders. If a paramedic student can't get an IV in pretty quickly, he gets pushed to the side, so that some who can do it can help the patient. I spend six months, perfusing more than 100 patients in heart surgery, with an instructor seated beside me. It's naive to think that laymen can properly perform these tasks, adequately, and without inflicting additional damage. Finally, it's BEYOND ridiculous to think that a company such as SA should be paying close to a million dollars a year on a handful of staff members, a few consultants, and retaining a group of medical professionals but not requiring them to actually show up for cases. I've worked there, and there is no need for them to be paying for 240 man-hours a week. They would be a much better company if they were in a much smaller facility, with two full-time staff members and a couple dozen medical professionals rotating call. Something like that would probably cost half of their current budget.