X-Message-Number: 7149
From:  (Anonymous)
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Subject: Cryonics Contracts
Date: 16 Nov 1996 19:24:13 +0100
Message-ID: <56l0sd$>

Sorry about that last posting.  When I sent it to the remailer no line was
longer than 72 characters.

Alcor says on its home page that it and its members are betting on future
technology.  And that is certainly true.  But IMO the much bigger gamble
cryoenthusiasts are making is that each successive crop of
burger-flippers-turned-managers can keep the company afloat indefinitely,
or can keep it out of the hands of slash-and-run takeover artists--who might
in turn immediately begin to look at ways to cut costs by experimenting
with room-temperature cryonics.  :-(

Given the realities of modern business (read managerial incompetence and
malfeasance), which are in the short term almost certain to screw up our
plans to be well-preserved for a relatively long period, can anyone think
of additional clauses that they would *like* to see in these contracts?
For instance, I would like to see some kind of guarantee that I won't be
thawed out and cremated, no matter what happens to the company.  Perhaps
a contractual requirement that dewars be turned over to competitors when
certain conditions cannot be maintained.   Or, minimally, that they be buried
at the south pole, say, which surely would be better than standard burial.

Furthermore, I'd sure hate to be the first person scientists try to revive.
Whoever that guinea pig is,  he is almost certain to die again after
suffering horribly for days, weeks, or even months.  Perhaps there could
be two tiers: an economy tier (you will be among the first who are brought
out of suspension), and a "rest-in-peace" tier (you won't be revived until,
say, 95% of revivees survive 50 years or more and the sample size is greater
than 100).

Anyway the terms and conditions of these contracts as presently written
need work.  Anyone agree?


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