X-Message-Number: 23999 From: Subject: Re: CI Member Cremated by Cousin Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 08:36:52 US/Eastern > From: Kennita Watson > > On Sun, 25 Apr 2004 20:18:12 US/Eastern, wrote: > > > An elderly CI Member who died of coronary artery disease at the > > end of March was cremated by a cousin who had signed a > > Consent/Release form for cryonic suspension. Because the > > Member was cremated rather than cryopreserved, the cousin > > will inherit the money that would have gone for cryopreservation. > > More details can be found in the upcoming issue of THE IMMORTALIST. > > Can you sue? Whether you can or not, is there something that > can be written into cryonics arrangements to make sure that > greedy a**holes like this don't see a dime? > > I would love to see a wrongful death lawsuit brought against > this guy. Even if we lost, it would bring the issue into the > public eye and get people thinking about the arguments. I appreciate your sentiment, Kennita. Many of us were very upset about this. But I don't think that efforts to "hurt" the cousin are very productive -- and actually have a good chance of causing more harm. After some discussion the CI Board concluded any attempt to sue would be counterproductive. At this state of our existence the public and the media have a very lopsided view of cryonics. Perhaps half of people already think that cryonics is a money-making scam. For us to refuse to provide the money when we have delivered no service would make make us look like bad money-grubbers, aside from the fact that I don't see a justice in this. Again, the lopsided view of cryonics in the public eye makes me think that we would not get a fair trial or fair media coverage if there was an attempt at a lawsuit. A judge or jury would likely be mostly skeptical about cryonics and the motives of cryonics organizations. Additionally, it was the choice of the CI Member to make his cousin both the person responsible for his cryopreservation and the person who would most benefit (his primary heir) from a failure to cryopreserve. The explicit directions of the Member were that if he was not cryopreserved, the money would go to his cousin. Those were his written wishes. We can revise our paperwork somewhat, but the main effort should be toward directing cryonicists not to be so naive or make themselves so vulnerable. Leave cryopreservation money to the cryonics organization even if there is no cryopreservation. Ensure that the person responsible for your remains is someone you trust -- relative or not. Appoint a Power of Attorney for Health Care who is a cryonicist or a friend who supports cryonics. Perhaps even cover your body with colorful tatoos that give the phone number of your cryonics organization to be called in emergency (as Bobby June has done). A cryonicists retirement community such as David Pizer has been wanting to build for years (and will apparently soon succeed in creating) is also an excellent idea. -- Ben Best, President Cryonics Institute Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=23999