X-Message-Number: 16520
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 12:08:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Swayze and Uninsurability

The case of Mr. Swayze is very difficult, I think, because there is such a
degree of hardship and it rouses so much empathy. If someone with AIDS
came to us and said, "I am desperate to be cryopreserved, but I am
uninsurable," a cryonics organization might respond, "We're really sorry,
but you should have made your cryonics arrangements before you engaged in
risky sexual activity. We cannot start giving our services away, because
it weakens the organization, which exists to protect people who were
provident and did make advance arrangements."

But quadriplegia is such a frightening condition, which we can easily
imagine happening to us (in a car crash, for instance); whereas AIDS,
despite efforts of activists to enlighten everyone, is still perceived as
something that happens to "other people." This is no longer correct, but
still, that seems to be the public perception.

Consequently it seems to me there is a powerful emotional component at
work here. You would not find this in a conventional business (such as
insurance). The business would simply say "No way!" and leave it at that.

This leads me again to the fact that cryonics is not run like a business.
We really need to be clear about what we're doing. If we are guided partly
by compassion, organizational guidelines should be revised to reflect
this, so that there is an existing set of principles to apply to "charity
cases," and all members of an organization are fully informed. If our sole
concern is fiscal integrity, we need to learn how to say no without
feeling guilty.

When I was given the task of picking a winner for the "Omni Immortality
Contest" (which was offering free membership and free cryopreservation), I
received three essays from people who were dying and were uninsurable, and
one especially moving essay from a man whose wife was dying, and he wanted
to donate his "free cryopreservation" to her. This put me in a position
which troubled me for months afterward. My job was to pick the "best"
essay. But if I ignored people's suffering, what did that make me? I tried
to reassure myself by reminding myself that cryonics offers only a chance
at future life, not a guarantee.

In the end I picked an essay written by a person who had been in a severe
car accident, leaving him scarred and in constant pain. He was hoping that
in the future, his pain could be eradicated with a new body. Thus, I tried
to salvage my conscience by choosing someone who was in genuine need.

And what happened? He procrastinated for more than a year, about signing
up, even though everything was free. And after he became an Alcor
member--he disappeared! No forwarding address. Evidently in his case, we
couldn't even give cryonics away.

These are just some of the complexities and paradoxes to which we open
ourselves, when we start making decisions on the basis of emotional
factors as well as business factors.

--CP

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