X-Message-Number: 227 From att!CompuServe.COM!72320.1642 Fri Sep 21 07:56:50 1990 Return-Path: <att!CompuServe.COM!72320.1642> Received: from att.UUCP by whscad1.att.uucp (4.1/SMI-3.2) id AA17359; Fri, 21 Sep 90 07:56:50 EDT Received: by att.att.com; Fri Sep 21 01:40:50 1990 Received: by saqqara.cis.ohio-state.edu (5.61-kk/5.900919) id AA05097; Fri, 21 Sep 90 01:40:48 -0400 Date: 20 Sep 90 23:41:15 EDT From: STEVE BRIDGE <> To: KEVIN <> Subject: ALCOR FEES; DONALDSON SUIT Message-Id: <"900921034115 72320.1642 EHI64-1"@CompuServe.COM> TO: KEVIN General Notice to prospectice Alcor members: (From CRYONICS magazine, August, 1990) >>Suspension Minimums to Rise.<< At the August 5th Alcor Board meeting, a resolution was passed which will raise suspension minimums for Suspension Members joining Alcor AFTER JANUARY 1, 1991. The new minimums are: NEUROSUSPENSION: $41,000 WHOLE BODY SUSPENSION: $120,000 Those persons who submit their $300 sign-up fee postmarked to Alcor before January 1, 1991 will be "grandfathered in" at the old rates of $35,000 for neurosuspension and $100,000 for whole body suspension. Existing Suspension Members will not be required to increase their funding minimums (i.e., they will not have suspension coveraged cancelled if they do not increase their level of funding to meet the new minimums). Please note that Suspension Funding Minimums are just that: __Minimums__. We recommend that you provide as much funding as possible. The safety margin calculated for the minimum level of funding is a slim one, and does not really address costs such as those that may be assoc- iated with the need to relocate in an emergency, pay for revival, and so on. It was necessary to raise the Minimums due to increases in costs in almost every area of the program over the nine years since the Minimums were last raised. Inflation alone has added 36% to the cost of living since 1982, when the Minimums were adjusted up from $25,000 and $60,000 for neurosuspension and whole body suspension, respectively. Mike Darwin presents a fuller discussion of the reasons for the cost increases in his article, "The Cost of Cryonics," elsewhere in the issue. >>Non-Member Suspensions Surcharged<< Due to the extra expense, extra difficulties, and marked extra risks associated with last-minute, non-member suspensions, the Alcor Board of Directors voted at its July, 1990 meeting to apply a $25,000 surcharge to ALL such non-member suspensions. Thus, whole body suspension for non- members will check in at $125,000, with neurosuspension at $60,000 ($145,000 and $66,000 as of January 1, 1990). Having done three non-member suspensions in less than a year, we are rapidly becoming acquainted with the tremendous extra workload associated with them. Legally, financially, and otherwise we are tasked to perform in a few days what normally we would do over the course of many months. And the attendant risks present in such situations are such that we need to design cost protocols and legal mechanisms to protect ourselves. Such a surcharge is only fair to Suspension Members. Suspension Members have paid (often for decades) for emergency responsibility, and have helped to defray the costs of Alcor's readiness to respond. They have also provided the extensive legal and financial preparation required to minimize the legal and financial risk to Alcor and insure that their suspensions go smoothly. Not only have non-members done none of this, but also they present risks associated with such problems as informed consent, authority to act, and so on. ************* From Steve Bridge: For you folks who have thought about joining Alcor "sometime," it shouldn't take too much reading between the lines to realize that NOW is a better sometime than after Jan 1st. And definitely NOW is better than after you are already pronounced dead, with frantic relatives trying to get you suspended (or trying to PREVENT you from being suspended; it works both way, and Alcor cannot act without legal authority). If you are a student and wondering where to come up with the $300 sign-up fee and annual fees of $250, you should be aware that the student rate for these fees is only one-half of the full rate. In addition, even for full-rate members, the rate for additional family members is one-half. The funding minimums are not reduced, but life insurance is fairly cheap for young people. You might, for instance, start with a neurosuspension membership and then expand to whole body when you could afford more insurance, if that was what you wanted. No statement yet from Alcor on whether such an upgrade would be at the old rate or the new one; but I am asking that in a letter to the Editor. >>>>>>>>>>>>> LAST-MINUTE NEWS FLASH! Well, it's not all that exciting, actually. The judge in Santa Barbara, CA has denied Thomas Donaldson's request for permission to enter cryonic suspension before his legal death. While this might seem on the surface to be a defeat for cryonics, it is not. The judge in the case expressed sympathy for Dr. Donaldson's position and (according to my sources) said that he wished he had the authority to allow Dr. Donaldson to do this. He said that he understood that the ruling would be appealed to the Appellate Court, where the issues could more appropriately be discussed. While we could wish that the judge had been a little more courageous, this is exactly what our attorneys had told us would happen. They were planning all along to make the major case the one at the Appellate Court. I'm sure Dr. Donaldson will provide us with more details on the appeal as that draws nearer. Steve Bridge, Midwest Coordinator Alcor Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=227