By Sara Olson

The cryonics industry has a serious image problem that needs to be resolved. The undertones of this issue reverberate through the community, resulting in a stereotype that could be a detriment to the ability of the cryonics industry in its effort to appeal to ‘new blood.’

This problem is that the public views cryonics as being an option only for old, rich eccentrics with no mind toward anyone but themselves.

The cryonics industry furthers this image problem by making cryonics a “cash only,” “pay now” enterprise. It is true that the cost of suspension can be covered through some insurance providers (though the number of carriers that allow organizations rather than trusts or individuals to be beneficiaries is shrinking rather than growing).

But there are many otherwise healthy people who are forcibly relegated to pay a cash lump sum in order to save their lives because of issues in their medical history. Otherwise healthy people are denied by insurance on a regular basis because of past issues, such as depression or high blood pressure, regardless of their age and improvement in health.

Also, members who wish to be suspended who live abroad are usually not able to attain insurance to cover the cost of suspension, and are therefore very often left to their own devices to achieve funding for their suspension. There are a number of members of the cryonics community in Europe who are frustrated with the fact that they have no real funding options for this purpose. International cryonics patients who have not as yet had a very feasible means of funding suspension outside of a lump cash payment also need another option.

Because of these very obvious flaws in “affordable” funding through insurance, I propose that the Cryonics Institute should prepare a ten year fixed payment plan made available to those rejected by insurance due to their imperfect medical history and those who cannot attain insurance due to their current place of residence who would like to be suspended.

Since the Cryonics Institute is at present the most affordable option for reliable cryonics service (with a current price tag of $28-35,000 for suspension), I am working from the assumption that those rejected by insurance will be most likely to start with them. The low price of this organization makes monthly payments a feasible option, since splitting the lump payments into a monthly payment plan would be roughly the equivalent of buying a nice car.

As a part of this plan, it will also be essential to establish a Cryonics Aid Fund. The fund is, in actuality, the catalyst for the success of the whole payment plan idea. This fund would be created and maintained by the donations of members of the cryonics community who choose to donate to this fund. This fund would be used in cases in which the member dies before they have fulfilled a portion of their payments, fulfilling the rest of the required payments that the person would have needed to make.

It would also be nice to see it used eventually to defray the monthly costs somewhat if enough money was collected to support the fund. I would prefer to see the required payments to fulfill the monthly requirement dropped as low as $100 monthly to make this service as accessible as possible to those who cannot be covered by insurance, but I am aware that this would very likely not be possible initially.

It would likely be a good idea to establish this fund first, find out how much it would be likely to receive, and then set up the payment plan system based on the amount of donations contributed to the fund. It may also be possible to invest some of these donations in a manner similar to the fashion in which CI invests its other donations in order to aid the growth of this fund as well.

This plan would not be appealing to those who would normally be covered by insurance, since the payments required would be significantly higher than the average insurance payment (including Option One fees, preparation and transport, payments would likely amount to roughly $270 a month). However, if proof were desired, it would likely be sufficient to provide proof of international citizenship (such as a passport or other ID) or a signed rejection letter from an insurance company.

Penalties would also need to be instituted for those who prematurely pull out of the payment plan to discourage this from happening. I would suggest a 20% penalty of fees already paid for anyone who prematurely pulls away from the plan, which would then immediately be donated to the Cryonics Aid Fund.

Anyone who refused to respond to attempts to communicate with them within three months of a continual lapse in payment would be considered lost, their contract would be cancelled, and their payments would be considered a full donation to the Cryonics Aid Fund (which I believe is legal as long as it is stated clearly in the contract).

It is important to understand that the investment options offered on the Cryonics Institute’s website are not a feasible option for those young adults who are just starting out and do not have an exceptionally large amount of disposable income. The investment plan offered requires that money first be saved before investing, and there is no ‘fail-safe’ available to the person who is working to save for their suspension, so if they happen to die before they have saved the requisite amount of money, they would be completely out of luck. This plan offers an opportunity for those people rather than a gamble.

Trevor J. Mahan of Scottsdale, Arizona is one example of a Cryonics Institute member who would greatly benefit from this type of structured payment plan. Trevor has been diagnosed with Cushing’s Syndrome, a disease caused most often by a benign pituitary tumor.

The syndrome is nearly always completely curable, but no insurance company will cover him because of this disease, and even when it is cured, it is likely they will refuse to carry him for some time thereafter (if they do at all). Therefore, Trevor is stuck paying for his suspension completely out-of-pocket, setting aside a significant amount of money each month with the hope that he can save enough eventually for his suspension.

However, a part of the process of healing may involve surgery, and, as with any surgery, there is a level of risk involved. Because of this, he would surely enjoy going into surgery with peace of mind knowing that his suspension was taken care of in spite of his lack of life insurance coverage. Trevor would jump on the chance to pay for his suspension through this plan and be able to have the peace of mind to know that if anything did go wrong in the process, he would still be able to grasp immortality in spite of his body’s attempts to defy his efforts. Trevor is one example of many others I could name who would be eternally grateful for the opportunity to take positive control of his immortality in this manner.

This plan would not be a complete solution, since it would not be able to cover the terminally ill or those over the age of about sixty years old (based on current mortality statistics) unless they wished to make a significantly higher payment over a much shorter period of time (a terminally ill patient with only a year's life expectancy would have to pay almost $2400 a month).

On the other hand, this would offer a lot of hope for those who are otherwise relatively healthy and have been stuck in the void, staring at the gaping maw of death when their deepest desire is to embrace life to its fullest by taking care of their suspension. Cryonics is a very small community right now, and it cannot afford to ignore the cries of even the smallest of minorities at this time. We should support those who want to LIVE as much as we possibly can, and I think this payment plan would be a fantastic way to do so.

It is essential for those in the cryonics community to understand that the success and survival of cryonics depends upon making access to suspension as universal as possible. This plan offers the community an opportunity to open itself to an even wider margin of people and, if executed and promoted, will significantly aid this community’s relations with the public, as institution of a plan like this will prove that an attempt is being made to offer cryonics to as wide a margin of people as possible and carry the very obvious implication that the cryonics industry is a caring community that makes every attempt possible to help those who have the desire to attain immortality.

These people are out there, fervently waiting to attain their immortality and help strengthen this community, and we would be sorely negligent to ignore their offer to give all the aid they can to this cause. This community cannot afford to be ambivalent. We cannot afford to ignore those who desire to survive… for the sake of our own survival as well.