by:

York W. Porter,     Immortalist Society President

In my previous column in our publication, I mentioned that the strength of the cryonics' organizations and of their individual members would be necessary to "save the day" for the people entrusted to our care. This and the next issue's articles involve something that is at the center of the cryonics process and that is the cryonics suspension contract itself. These contracts vary in detail from one cryonics provider to the next depending on what the provider views as what is necessary and reasonable. They also vary from one cryonicist to the next depending on their particular philosophy and viewpoint of the suspension process, Nevertheless, suspension contracts are the primary link between any cryonicist and any suspension services provider. This sometimes aggravating and detail oriented "paperwork" is a necessary evil that all of us live with in the cryonics community. The skills and dedication of the numerous divisions of the "cryonics army", which is the phrase I used in referring, in the previous column, to all the fine organizations we have in the field of cryonics, may all come to naught, or at the least be very compromised in their effectiveness, without the basic existence of the suspension contract and without its adequate funding. While I continue to be impressed with the dedication and the willingness of cryonics services providers to try to do anything in reason in helping their fellow cryonicists to attain as good a suspension as possible, the reality is that we live inside a society of laws and regulations that can sometimes intentionally or unintentionally hamper that dedication. Therefore, it is incumbent upon each of us that believe in the wonderful concept that Robert Ettinger thought up, to do our part to clear any unecessary roadblocks. In a basic sense, it is like the motto that I was exposed to as a Boy Scout, lo those many years ago in my youth, and which the world of Scouting still maintains today and that is the simple but relevant saying of "Be prepared!".

The first step you can take to meet the "be prepared" standard as it involves cryonics, is to make sure as regards your suspension contract that you have one! As bad as I hate to admit it in public, I went for years and years, even as an officer in IS, without any suspension contract at all with me counting, I suppose, on Lady Luck and my youth to carry the day. This was in spite of the fact that in the line of work that I am in, which is as a healthcare worker in a hospital setting (and, in younger years, in an ambulance setting as well), I was and am exposed again and again to the God awful and heartbreaking phenomena of an early and/or sudden death. These cases occur not only to the quite elderly for whom, perhaps, a heart attack is not an unexpected event, but also occur as an early and/or sudden death due to trauma and illness to those whose life was as short or shorter than mine when they happened. I recently, for instance, underwent the unexpected loss of a friend of mine who was only thirty eight and, as such, some 17 years my junior and I cannot count the number of times I have seen numerous tragedies involving young people killed in car wrecks or succumbing to other causes of death at a "too young" age. On top of my irrational dependence on "youth and luck" as a psychological roadblock to getting the paperwork done, another factor that I believe hampered me was my tendency towards perfectionism. It was sometimes the case of me thinking of the suspension contract, realizing that it needed to be completed, and putting it off until I can "read more and study more and get things 'just right' on paper". This type of thinking left me in peril for years and years and the best advice I can give to any cryonicist, as our founder Robert Ettinger has pointed out (frankly, time and again), would be to join at least one of the organizations as soon as possible and to get the appropriate paper work filled out as soon as possible as well. As Professor Ettinger has stated many times, quite correctly and frighteningly so, delay has in years past been fatal and the history of cryonics is replete with people who have joined our cause only not to be suspended themselves when Death came calling. Don't you be one of those! Again, I strongly urge you to get in contact with whatever organization best suits your philosophy and join them, and get the actual suspension contract done as soon as you can. Believe me, the people at the various organizations will be more than happy to help you unless you are a total and complete pain to deal with and, frankly, even then they will go the "extra mile" and then some to try to save your life.

The other thing you can do is to fund your organization's contract as much above the minimum as you reasonably can. It would be a very nice thing in cryonics if a "sugar daddy" or two would arrive on the scene, loaded to the gills with a few billion in financial resources, and be as dedicated and altruistic as many of us try to be to the cause for which we all are struggling. So far, like my attempts to win the Powerball lottery, it just "ain't happened yet". Though I remain cautiously hopeful that at some future point, however distant in time, we can convince some billionaire philanthropists (and/or that ultimate billionaire philanthropist, Uncle Sam himself) of our good and honorable intentions and can recruit them to our efforts, the reality at present is that it just "ain't happened yet" either. While we have been blessed in cryonics to have secured, from time to time, some relatively substantial estate bequests and while we are also blessed to have in cryonics the philanthropic efforts of some folks who would be generally considered to be well off, the reality is that none of those bequests and none of those greatly appreciated and heartfelt philanthropic efforts by themselves is enough to carry the organizations on their own indefinitely. As we become, inevitably with the march of time, responsible for more and more patients to care for, we will also become responsible for the increased expense of materials and personnel that that will entail. The money that each suspension brings in will, rightly or wrongly, help form the basic pool of resources upon which each of the organizations will have to depend upon.

This is, of course, where you come in. More on this in the next issue.