X-Message-Number: 23526
From:
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 21:54:51 EST
Subject: CI Michigan agreement
Content-Language: en
A few days ago Ben sent the following to CI members. It will also
appear in the next issue of The Immortalist.
R.E.
-----------------------------------
Below are the Conditions to Licensure as a Cemetery
which David Ettinger negotiated with Department of
Consumer and Industry Services of the State of Michigan.
This is version 7 of the agreement -- the final version which
was accepted by both parties. This is a document of
public record of which I believe CI members should be
fully informed. It allows us to continue our operations in
much the same manner except for the establishment of
a separate fund and the requirement that we perfuse at
a funeral director's establishment (whereas previously we
had often perfused at our facility). So we are able to
operate as a very special kind of cemetery with our
own special conditions of operation, ie, we are fully
operational as a cryonics organization.
-- Ben Best
__________________________________________________
CONDITIONS TO LICENSURE
The application for licensure for the Cryonics Institute ( CI )
is conditioned on the following facts, and licensure will
constitute approval of its operation in the following manner.
Without waiving its claims and objections regarding the
lack of jurisdiction of the Department of Consumer and
Industry Services or the Cemetery Commissioner over CI,
CI is prepared to accept licensure as a cemetery if the
conditions are consistent with CI s method of operations
as spelled out below:
1. CI will engage in cryonic suspension and cryonic storage
of its patients, as defined in its Cryonic Suspension Agreement,
at its facility in Clinton Township, Michigan, except that any
perfusion of patients with cryoprotective solutions utilizing
current technology and conducted within the State of Michigan
will occur at a licensed funeral establishment conducted by a
licensed mortician. CI will not specify in advance the specific
location within its facility at which any particular patient will
be stored. CI will not require down payments in connection
with its contracts. None of CI s facilities will be considered an
undeveloped cemetery area. CI s services do not involve grave
memorials or burial vaults.
2. CI will continue to contract with patients for the entire
cryonic suspension process, including perfusion, and will make
separate payments to funeral directors for the conduct
of perfusion with cryoprotective solutions in Michigan.
3. CI shall require that funeral directors engaged in the perfusion
process for its patients shall follow CI s protocol and utilize
the chemicals directed by CI.
4. CI shall operate from a facility with the total property
substantially less than forty acres.
5. CI shall set aside an Endowment Care Trust Fund containing
funds equal to $4,000.00 per patient, for all patients cryonically
suspended prior to the date of licensure, according to the terms
of the attached Trust Agreement. These funds will be set aside for
maintenance, which shall include liquid nitrogen storage of existing
CI patients. All patients cryonically suspended post-licensure
will have endowed care trust deposits of not less than 15% of the
interment proceeds (defined as CI's minimum suspension fee less
the amount allocated for initial expenses, including perfusion and
initial freezing). The initial deposit to the Endowed Care Trust
Fund shall be made not later than January 7, 2004.
6. CI will set aside funds in the amount of $50 per patient in a
separate bank account for these patients who have chosen to prepay
their suspension fees. Based upon its current operations, CI will
not set aside funds in any other separate accounts, such as
merchandise trust accounts, and is not currently subject to the
Prepaid Funeral Contract Funding Act. Based on its current
operations, CI shall not maintain a merchandise trust account, a
cemetery development fund, a merchandise escrow account, a
construction trust fund, or a construction development trust fund.
7. CI will not permanently seal its cryostats, but will continue to
replenish them with liquid nitrogen and open them as appropriate,
including to add patients. CI s cryostats will continue to contain
multiple patients. CI s patients shall be required to use CI s cryostats.
CI will not file a plat or map with regard to its facility, but will file a
floor plan identifying the location of its cryostats, and will maintain
records identifying the cryostats in which each patient is contained.
CI will not provide information to prospective patients regarding the
specific cryostat which shall be utilized for them, and shall routinely
contract with members for cryonic suspension without specific
provisions for construction of cryostats for those members,
since the death of those members could be years or decades
in the future. CI shall not utilize grave markers, section markers
or survey markers.
8. CI will continue to offer to its members the option of funding
their cryonic suspensions by life insurance policies with CI as
the beneficiary.
9. CI s facility received zoning approval when it opened, but CI
is not zoned as a cemetery and will not be zoned as a cemetery.
10. CI will engage in a cool down of its patients according to its
own best judgment of what is appropriate for its patients, and
shall not be required to place patients in its cryostats as soon
as possible after receipt, or obtain written permission for any
delays in doing so.
11. Because of the uncertain, long term nature of cryonic
suspension, CI shall not be required to indicate or assure how
it will perform its future obligations, or the cost of those obligations
other than the cost of liquid nitrogen storage.
12. CI shall not submit its Cryonic Suspension Agreement to the
Commission for approval because that document has been
reviewed by the Commission.
13. This application has been reviewed by the Cemetery
Commissioner and the Department of Consumer and Industry
Services, and they have concluded that CI s operations and the
activities as described herein or as reviewed by them in their
investigation of CI do not violate Michigan law and will not be the
subject of enforcement action. Upon approval of this application
the two Cease and Desist Orders dated August 26, 2003
shall be withdrawn.
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