X-Message-Number: 87
From: Kevin Q. Brown
Subject: Lifepact 
Date: 7 May 1989

Linda Chamberlain recently wrote a proposal for a new cryonics - related
organization called Lifepact.  (See messages #83 and #86.)  The eight-page
proposal titled "Lifepact: An Introduction" opens with the question:

  "Why should people of the future want to reanimate those of us frozen back
  in the twentieth century?"

In message #85  suggested one possible answer:

> As to why people will reanimate corpsicles, I suggest they will do it for
> the same reason they provide medical care to the sick and fund research
> on cures for fatal diseases:  because they will want the same services
> for themselves in the event they need them, and because of the good neighbor

> principle.  People are even willing to go to Alaska to save a few oily otters.

We may be that lucky.  Reanimation and rehabilitation technology and services
may indeed become cheap and readily available.  But, as 

pointed out in message #79, experts' optimistic projections are not always true;
fission was supposed to make energy incredibly cheap and plentiful yet it
didn't work out that way.  We may indeed have "good neighbors" that reanimate
and rehabilitate all the frozen strangers from the past.  But, then again, as
Linda Chamberlain points out in the proposal, it would be even easier to just

leave the people frozen.  Furthermore, existing or future cryonics organizations
may fail, leaving their suspended members to thaw out.  (This has happened
before.)  Or, they may be able to keep members frozen, but be unwilling or
unable to take on the additional task of reanimation, rehabilitation, and
reeducation (the three R's).  The point of Lifepact is "Why leave our fate to
chance when there is something positive that we can do about it now?".  As
Linda Chamberlain described it:
  "Members make a lifepact, a contingent contract, with the Lifepact
  organization: in return for the care, attention, and assistance they
  receive, they guarantee to repay Lifepact for the cost of their reanimation
  and rehabilitation, and/or to work in assisting other Lifepact members
  not yet reanimated.  The crux of the lifepact is simple: members (who
  themselves have been reanimated and rehabilitated) have an obligation to
  reach out, to assist other Lifepact members still in suspension."
At the worst, Lifepact will provide an unnecessary backup for the existing
cryonics organizations.  At best it will prevent suspended people from being
thawed out (and lost) and also provide a higher quality and more timely
reanimation, rehabilitation, and reeducation.  Furthermore, the existence of
such an organization may encourage people to sign up for cryonic suspension
who otherwise would regard it as too unlikely to succeed due to lack of support
for those three R's.

According to Issue 1 of the newsletter Lifepact News, the only objection to
Lifepact to date is that it creates yet another organization.  We already
have three major suspension organizations (and their associated membership
organizations), a few cryonics organizations without suspension capability,
the Venturists, and C.E.L. (Citizens for an Extended Lifespan).  Why add yet
another organization?  The best answer I can provide is that Lifepact serves
a purpose not covered by any of the other organizations; no other organization
is specifically addressed to supporting the three R's.  Even though existing
cryonics organizations may take on that responsibility, too, the organizational
strengths and skills required to perform cryonic suspensions and maintain
people in suspension are likely to not be the same as those required for
reanimation, rehabilitation, and reeducation.  (A separate organization for
that role is likely to be created eventually anyway.)  Another valuable aspect
of Lifepact is that all cryonicists are welcome as full members, not just
Alcor members, just ACS members, or just CI members.

Much work needs to be done to start up this organization (and make certain that
it serves a unique purpose not already covered by the existing cryonics
organizations).  Some areas that need (volunteer) work are:
  Development of Lifepact Agreements
  Museum-Library Development (for recording and saving your personal history)
  Technology Tracking
  Future Shock Reduction Studies
  Support Group Formation
  Organizational Stability Studies
More details will be provided at the May 26 - 29 CryoFest (message #86).

Membership in Lifepact costs $25. / year for an individual (or $35. / year for
a couple) and includes Lifepact News and the quarterly Lifepact Journal (to
begin summer 1989).  (A nonmembership subscription to Lifepact Journal costs
$20. / year.)  Copies of "Lifepact: An Introduction" are available (apparently
free of charge) from:
  Lifepact Project
  Lake Tahoe Life Extension Festival
  P.O. Box 18698
  South Lake Tahoe, CA 95706
                                       - Kevin Q. Brown
                                       ...att!ho4cad!kqb
                                       

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