X-Message-Number: 23974
From: "John de Rivaz" <>
References: <>
Subject: re: Celebrity Signups
Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 15:15:40 +0100

. Message #23966
> From: 
> Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 10:46:41 EDT
> Subject: Steve Bridge points well taken re: Celebrity Signups

> a good idea.  It just so happens that Francis Crick, for instance, is 87
> years old and has cancer.  This makes him uninsurable at ANY rate.

Is it not possible in the USA to have an "investment only" insurance, ie the
sum insured equals the value of a bond run by the insurance company? The
advantage of this is that the investor gets the benefits of the insurance
company's trust and  the legal and tax benefits of life insurance, and all
of the funds are invested rather than providing life cover. It certainly has
been available in the UK in the past, although I have no idea about the
current situation.

With regards to the Omni winner who did not take up his prize of a free
cryopreservation, exactly the same thing happened with the competition run
by the British magazine New Scientist.

Their much publicised competition had a choice of a holiday including a trip
to a famous observatory, or membership of CI with the cryopreservation fee
paid. It was won by some woman who chose the $13,000 holiday rather than the
$28,000 CI full body cryopreservation. In a poll, about 30% of responders
said they would have gone for the CI cryopreservation. This can be
extrapolated to suggest that if cryopreservation was an option on the UK's
state run health service, approximately 18 million people would opt for it.
But as it was, cryonics people were a minority and it can be justified that
the magazine chose the option that would cost it less money.

Had New Scientist (a magazine with a greater standing in the scientific
world than Omni) just offered the holiday they would probably have got no
publicity at all. But as it was, they got coverage on nearly all the highly
watched prestigious TV news and current affairs programmes in the UK and
also a high level of coverage all around the world.

-- 
Sincerely, John de Rivaz:  http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including
Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley
Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy,  Nomad .. and
more

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