X-Message-Number: 15306 Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001 17:24:00 -0500 From: david pizer <> Subject: Re: CryoNet #15289 - #15299 >From: Charles Platt <> >Mike Perry of course is right: Ideally, people who are at imminent risk of >death should relocate near a cryonics facility. Even more ideally, we >should have a suitable place ready for them. >In practice however I have seen many cases (which Mike must know about, >since his knowledge is encyclopedic) where elderly or infirm people become >extremely stubborn and refuse to take action that is clearly in their own >interests. In my limited experience, I can't think of a single person who >has relocated in anticipation of cryopreservation. This raises an issue >which deserves far greater consideration than it receives: The tendency of >patients to interfere with their own care. This observation is *very* correct. In 10 years as an Alcor officer and director I saw many cases where a person became terminal and refused to move close to Alcor. It seems that when most cryonicists become terminal several things almost always happen: 1. They don't want to leave home. They feel much more comfortable at home when terminal. 2. They make very bad decisions about their suspension and concerning timing. They deny that they are terminal and that often leads to not getting a standby. The only good standbys that I have seen are when another person (who is supportive) is handling the details for the terminal person. I recommend that all cryonicists appoint someone they trust with their life to handle the details for them when they become terminal. I have seen even the strongest cryonicists make these mistakes when they become terminal: People who were probably stronger advocates than 80% of the people reading this making very bad last minute decisions concerning their standby and suspension. (I know you think *you* won't make these mistakes, but it always happens). The solution: 1. Several of us are going to build a cryonics retirement community in Arizona. It will be in a beautiful area not too far from Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon. 2. The facility will be for healthy persons who want a place to live and work or who want to retire among other cryonicists. It will have lots of things to do for people interested in cryonics and life extension. 3. The facility will focus on how to stay healthy and happy (as opposed to how to die and get frozen), but when the time comes, the terminal person will be surrounded by like-minded cryonics friends who can help out. Who knows? The healthy life style may even help some people live long enought that they won't need to be frozen. 4. The facility will also be a resort. 4a. This will allow for income to offset some of the retirement expenses. 4b. This will allow cyonicists to come and visit when they are younger and healthy. My expectation is that if a person becomes terminal and he/she has visited the resort several times in the past and is familiar with the facility and comfortable there, the terminal person will feel more comfortable moving there at that time near legal death. 5. In addition, we hope to have a very complete library, an observatory, exercise rooms and programs, weekly speakers on life extension and science and philosophy. And we are open to other ideas to make this facility the best place in the world for immortalists to live. The retirement community will be run by the Society For Venturism a 501 C3 non-profit corporation run by cryonicists. We expect to break ground on the resort part of the project by the middle or end of this year and build the complete retirement facility over the next few years. I will post more information when anything new comes up. Dave Pizer Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15306