X-Message-Number: 10087
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 10:12:46 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #10076 - #10079

To Brett Corlett:
First of all, not all people of your age die in accidents (I won't 
discuss here the fact that death may not be sudden and there may be
time for a good suspension even in case of accidents --- that seems
clear but at the same time I do not have any statistics to back it
up).

I've observed an interesting (and unpleasant) thing happen to people
about the age of 30. Sure, they're young and can expect lots more
years of life. BUT they discover that they have some condition or 
other which (if it does nothing else, and it may do much more) impairs
their ability to get life insurance. Like: they discover they have
a tendency toward diabetes, and it's slowly getting worse. Or many
other conditions. They may even learn that their relatives have
gotten Huntington's Disease, an inherited condition which appears
in middle age.

While I don't know how well off you are economically, you will probably
be able to make good money once you graduate. And this says to me
that ASAP you should get life insurance. Don't delay.

And just to be depressive, even older people can die in circumstances
which make a good suspension difficult. An instance would be a sudden
heart attack. For what it's worth, Alcor has worked hard on finding
ways to get to people as soon as possible. Not only that, but they've
made progress --- not that there isn't even more to do.

I'd say that the way to regard cryonics, particularly now, is as a 
means to rescue you when it is possible to do so. You don't really know
when and how you may become seriously ill and die. Some subset of those
cases (and we're all working on making that subset as large as we
ccan!) will be that in which you can be given a good suspension. And
rather than simply decide that you're most likely to die in difficult
conditions, you might think about arrangements which would allow rapid
suspension (or increase its probability) in cases you might think at
first don't allow. Then we'll all benefit.

			Best and long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson

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