X-Message-Number: 9052 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: Re: CryoNet #9037 - #9040 Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 20:37:39 -0800 (PST) Hi guys! To Dr. Strout: I agree with what you say to Marty, except for one thing. There really is very active work on repair of spinal cords, and we'll likely see benefits in much less than 50 years. For some time after that, of course, repair will not be perfect ie. someone who spinal cord had been severed may be able to walk and feel their lower body, but be much clumsier than before, and not as sensitive. Those whose spinal cord had been severed at a higher level will have much the same problem with their arms, etc, and may still need help breathing. I give this about 10 years to happen; how long the FDA takes to approve it afterwards I can't say. I'll get you references on this if you wish. Basically, I believe that it will come much earlier than 50 years from now because there IS that interest and activity. Things have started to heat up, and more people have started working on the problem. But as you say, this is much more of interest to hemiplegics and paraplegics than to cryonicists or immortalists. To Mr. TheEdge: You ask questions which can become quite complicated, but only if you join a cryonics society and insist on complications. First, the usual practise is to pay for your suspension by life insurance. Since you will have "died" when this life insurance pays off, you clearly cannot make it payable to yourself. The only thing that would happen is that it would go to your heirs, who would NOT be your cryonics society. The way to do it is to join a cryonics society first, and then as part of joining (you cannot join unless your provide a source of funding) you also take out a life insurance policy to cover your suspension, making it payable to your cryonics society. It is possible also to change the beneficiary of a life insurance policy you already have. For that matter, you can hand over the required amount for storage when you join. It is the cryonics society which directly or indirectly manages this money; the income from it, not the principal, pays for your suspension and continued storage. I can speak best about Alcor, of which I am both a member and one of the trustees to their Suspension Fund (which pays for storage). So far, there has not been a problem of insufficient income. In one case, a woman was transferred to Alcor with very little money to pay for storage; rather than simply thaw her out, Alcor removed her head and stored that. Her body was grossly swollen because she had died of liver cancer, but it was allowed to thaw and examined to see what our treatment had done. Plainly speaking, you can have no legal protection now once you are frozen. Society at large considers you to be "dead" and those who are "dead" have no rights. HOWEVER, it is in the interest of every member of every cryonics society that no one simply be allowed to thaw out. That is why Alcor took over the suspension of the woman I mention above. Presently there is no formal arrangement for cooperation, but what would probably happen is that you would be transferred to another society. If you wish to set up a private fund, and have the money to do so (there are all kinds of problems in doing this: the Perpetuity Rule is the first one, but there ARE legal jurisdictions where the Perpetuity Rule does not hold) then you can do so. Alcor insists that you still pay a minimum amount, which is the amount they believe will be sufficient to keep you in suspension indefinitely REGARDLESS of what you do with your other assets. Some have done this. The point is that even if your private fund goes bust, if Alcor's Suspension Fund remains solvent you will remain in suspension. If you wish your whole body to be suspended, then Alcor will do that, but in the legal papers you must sign it states that Alcor may if necessary remove your head and only store that (this is called neuropreservation: we want to keep your brain more than anything else). I hope this explains these things. Long long life, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=9052