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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10087