X-Message-Number: 5937
From: 
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 13:11:13 -0500
Subject: disclaimers

Brian Wowk has been engaged in a long argument with anti-life-extensionists,
and has tried to be very understanding and gracious, even saying that the
exchanges have taught him something about public relations. Seems to me this
is  bending over backwards, neither necessary nor effective.

There will always be a segment of the population that cannot be handled by
psychologists, but only by proctologists. Forget that segment. To put heavy
disclaimers in short advertisements would be silly. There are plenty of
disclaimers in all of our contracts and in our personal contacts.

For example, Steve Bridge likes to say that cryonics is an "ambulance to the
future." To satisfy the antis, he would have to say something like, "Cryonics
is an ambulance to the future, but in the opinion of almost all
cryobiologists it has four flat tires and no drive shaft, and besides the
future will probably be rotten anyway, and your kids need your money, or if
you don't have kids there are other poor kids who need your money."

Anyone with the slightest clue to reality knows that cryonics is NOT a
fertile field for bilking the credulous. Over thirty years of frequent
publicity, and only 65 in cryostasis! Well, I guess it's hard to see anything
when you're at the lower end of the G.I. tract.

Of course it is still possible for people to make decisions they may later
regret, especially since there are guaranteed to be those who will try to
make them regret it. But we have adequate screening, I believe. The contracts
have plenty of disclaimers, and in our personal contacts we make sure the
prospective member is well informed and is not a kook. 

Heavy disclaimers in slogans or advertisements or in initial-contact public
relations pieces? Nonsense.

Robert Ettinger


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