X-Message-Number: 9597
Date: Sat, 2 May 1998 18:53:59 -0400
From: Saul Kent <>
Subject: Opinions On Why People Don't Sign Up

        I asked people for their opinions on why people
don't sign up for cryonics (9576) and several people
responded.  Here are my comments on their responses:

        den Otter says (9576) that he thinks that "lots of 
people (most?) are more or less afraid of cryonics because
it's death-related and 'unconventional'. Mostly I've heard
arguments like 'who wants to live again/forever', 'one life
is bad enough' or 'it's not natural' or 'I believe in some
(vague) life after death' etc."

        I agree there are many people who aren't
especially interested in cryonics because they're unhappy
and don't look forward to the future.  I don't think it's profitable
even to attempt to recruit such people because they're not
motivated to attempt to live longer.

        I also think that people who truly believe in a 
religious concept of life-after-death aren't good candidates
for recruitment now, although I think many of them will come
around when cryonics has more credibility.

        As far as those people who don't sign up because
cryonics is unconventional or death-related, these too will start
to come around when cryonics becomes more associated with
doctors and medicine than with funeral directors and death, and
when cryonics has more credibility.

        Andrew S. Davidson says (9580) that a strong factor
that keeps people from signing up is that they don't think it's
possible to restore people to life after "death".

        I agree.  The fact that we have to freeze people *after*
they're declared "dead" has been a major obstacle to growth in
cryonics since the beginning.  Not only because it makes it 
difficult for many people to accept the fact that it's possible to 
restore a person to life after "death", but also because it makes
it difficult and expensive to conduct the standby necessary to
start the freezing process as soon as possible.

        One solution to this problem would be if laws such as
the one passed in Oregon to permit assisted suicide would
become widespread, but that's unlikely at this time because of
staunch opposition among right-to-lifer's, physicians, and a 
significant segment of the general public.

        The best solution to the problem would be the achieve-
ment of suspended animation, but that's still a long way off.  How-
ever, it may become possible to convince society that assisted
"suicide" (or assisted cryonics) should be made legal if we can
provide scientific evidence that freezing or vitrification preserves
memory in laboratory animals.  That's one goal that might be
achievable in the relatively near future...perhaps within a few
years.

        Davidson also notes that the media often focus on
the "high" cost of cryonics, and that "the perception that freezing
is an impossibly expensive procedure" may be a major factor
in preventing people from signing up.

        This perception is easy to overcome for relatively
young and healthy people by simply pointing out that using life
insurance to sign up for cryonics is *not* expensive.  Of course,
you have to get their attention first before you can convince them
of this.  One way would be for cryonics organizations to put together
a brochure specially designed to deliver this message.  Such a
brochure could not only point out that cryonics is affordable for
most people, but also that there are significant costs associated
with the alternatives (burial and cremation).

        Finally, Davidson notes that he is not yet signed up
and gives several reasons for this:  first, because of a "lack of
confidence in the current organization"; second because of a
"general feeling that I have plenty of time"; and third, because
nobody is "banging on my door" trying to sell him on signing
up for cryonics.

        I want to point out that, first, Davidson is *exactly* the
kind of prospect that the cryonics organization should be making
efforts to recruit.  He accepts the value of the idea and he knows
something about it.  There are a good many others in the same
boat and, I believe, that virtually all advertising and marketing
efforts in cryonics should concentrate on locating and signing up
such people. (In Davidson's case, we don't have to locate him;
he's already located us).

        At a time when few people see the value of cryonics,
and even fewer people can be *made* to see the value of cryonics,
it is absolutely imperative to focus our marketing efforts on those who
do.  In other words, we have to mine the high-grade ore because other
types of ore are of such a low grade that it isn't profitable to try to
mine
them.

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