X-Message-Number: 14406
From: 
Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2000 12:41:43 EDT
Subject: funeral directors & comparisons

Mr. Grigg's post about the use of funeral directors, including an excerpt 
from the CI web site, illustrates again the complexity and difficulty of 
comparing organizations. Besides recommending once more a full reading of all 
the organizations' web sites, let me just add these reminders:

First, as Mr. Grigg and Thomas Donaldson and others have recently again 
noted, there are many scenarios of death, and the best choice for a 
particular scenario and a particular individual may not be best for another. 

Second, one should not be too fixated on the past or even the present, but on 
the likely future. CI, Alcor, and ACS are working hard to improve all aspects 
of their operations. At CI, in particular, we expect fairly soon to make 
changes in our cryoprotection procedures, to reflect results of recent 
research, which will very soon begin to be posted on our web site, with a 
small beginning in the issue of THE IMMORTALIST now printed and soon to be 
mailed. This of course will also mean changing our guidelines for funeral 
directors, but at this time we do not anticipate any increase in local 
emergency costs.

Third, once more, we intend to offer our members as wide a spectrum of 
options as possible. This means, for example, that if and when the 
vitrification procedures under study at 21CM become available for actual 
patients, and if CI is unable to offer them directly in our own facility--or 
for as long as that is the case--then we will endeavor to have a subcontract 
option available. The member then would retain the benefits of CI membership 
and lower storage costs.

Fourth, and for the umpteenth time, don't be like Buridan's ass, which 
starved to death because it couldn't make up its mind between two bales of 
hay. Any choice is better than none, delay can be fatal, and later change is 
always possible.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org 

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