The Immortalist

In Q1 '04 I'll be moving back to Australia, and will stay there for the foreseeable future. I expect to maintain dual citizenship (Australia/USA) and I'll be living about 15 minutes from the nearest hospital (I've bought the Limpinwood Tea-house outside Murwillumbah). I presently enjoy membership in Alcor via life insurance, and I would prefer to continue this membership if possible. Alcor provides little guarantee of service to non-US residents, however, so it seems I might have to jump ship.

I've read the CAA website at http://prix.pricom.com.au/caa/index.html and also CI's brief comments on its Australian service at http://www.cryonics.org/euro.html. But before doing anything drastic I thought it best to ask here:

If you were in this situation, what would you do? If you represent one of the orgs, what can you offer Americans living in Oz? And if you're an Australian cryonicist, CAA or not, what particular chal-lenges do you face these days in Oz?

Oh, and for those that would say, "just don't go", sorry mate, in my estimation the chances of cryonics working in my particular case aren't sufficient to counterbalance the risks of just living in the US today. Actually that's a good question anyway: how much quality of life are you willing to trade for quantity of life?

Peter Merel recently asked on Cryonet where CI's Australian members live. Robert Ettinger replied. "We can't generally identify them without permission, but the towns are: North Clayton, Glebe, Adelaide, Pyrmont, Sydney, Pymble, Bridgetown, Sandy Bay, Hampton, and Melbourne." Mr. Merel apparently is going to be pretty far to the northeast in Queensland, so another mortician closer to him should be found, which should not be difficult

From: Simon Carter:

Nice to know another cryonicist is heading in my general direction! I've been living in Brisbane for the last five years. I look forward to meeting you.

Peter: I'll be out of the way, but not that far out of the way. Murwillumbah is in New South Wales, about 1 hour south of Coolangatta and 1.5 hours south of Brisbane.

Peter: My teahouse has a superb view of the NSW/Old border range, part of the eroded caldera of Wollumbin now covered with virgin rainforest. A few snaps of same are at
http://www.greencheese.org/LimpinwoodTeahouse .

Peter: Furthermore at least some of the time I'll be ably assisted by a dear friend of mine who happens to be a qualified and experienced cardiac perfusionist. Of course being just 41 and in good health I rather expect to employ her skills in the garden than the operating theatre, and I haven't canvassed how she feels about this particular brand of lunacy...

Peter: I've signed up with Alcor and am a member of the Cryonics Association of Australia.(CAA) I'm unsure whether there are any signed up cryonicists in SE Queensland/Northern NSW but have a vague idea there are a couple. You could seek further information from the CAA. One problem cryonicists certainly have in Australia is that we are few in number and highly dispersed. To partially counter this we have, as Bob mentioned, arrangements for basic suspension services to be performed by several mortuaries. I'm trying to avoid facing the likelihood that if I should encounter a need for emergency suspension I'd most likely be completely screwed.

I would not say "completely screwed" as even emergencies can result in some warning time before pronunciation of 'death'. Even in the US folk have been subjected to prolonged delay. Nevertheless such matters are of concern to us here.

Peter: Just in case anyone's contemplating starting a new org or extending an existing one I should point out that Australia is a tectonically stable continent with no real winter,

Peter: proven democracy, world's best engineers and doctors, no religious extremism, the Asian market on the door-step, an active euthanasia lobby, a government open to research on stem cells and cloning, and even a number of media personalities willing to come out and say they're signed up for cryonics ...

Peter: Hmm. You know there might just be enough wealthy madmen in and around Byron to find backers to start an org. Damn, Ah well, no harm in talking to a few of 'em .. Didn't Phil Rhoades start down this path?

Yes, you should get together with Phil. Even post your thoughts to the CAA list. I hope some of the other Australian cryonicists will add their thoughts and email you/CryoNet.