X-Message-Number: 120
From arpa!Xerox.COM!merkle.pa Wed Jul 12 21:22:10 PDT 1989
Received: from Semillon.ms by ArpaGateway.ms ; 12 JUL 89 21:22:42 PDT
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 89 21:22:10 PDT
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Subject: People magazine covers CRYONICS
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The July 17th issue of People magazine (the one with Hugh Hefner on the
front) has an article on the suspension of Dick Clair Jones (page 57).

On the feasibility of cryonics:  "Skeptics point out that though future
medical technology may indeed be able to cure now-incurable diseases,
healing dead people will remain considerably more difficult."

On Alcor:  "Clair became an active member of a Riverside, Calif., group
called the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, which describes itself as 'the
world's largest and most capable provider of cryonic suspension services.'"
....  "His estate consisted of current assets of about $1 million, more
than enough to cover the $100,000 fee for keeping his body frozen
indefinitely.  (Those willing to rest in piece can have a head-only
'neurosuspension' at the cut rate of $35,000.)"

On the settlement:  "Both sides agree that he was suffering hallucinations.
'He said there were balloons coming off the wall, but he KNEW he was
hallucinating and that there really were no balloons there,' points out
McMahon's attorney, Ronald Palmieri.  'It was like a '60s acid trip.'"

"'That just shows how incompetent he was,' says David Epstein, Alcor's
lawyer.  'Would you let a person on an acid trip sign a complicated legal
document?'  Yet late last month, after six months of pretrial proceedings,
Alcor pulled the plug on its suit and settled, agreeing to pay both sides'
legal costs, which may come to $400,000, and accepting the terms of the
second will.  The cryonicists had concluded they didn't have a chance in
court.  'I think there was an anti-cryonics bias,' says Darwin."

"'If my client had not been Alcor, if it had been an acceptable group,'
says Epstein, 'this case would have been a walk.'"

Net result:  good coverage for cryonics and Alcor -- they got the rates
right, portrayed the organization as the sincere if slightly odd underdog,
and didn't call cryonics impossible.

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