X-Message-Number: 12795
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 18:56:45 -0500
From: david pizer <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #12787 - #12790

At 05:00 AM 11/18/99 -0500, CryoNet wrote:
 
snip
 
I would love to hear more real life stories about what has actually
transpired in cases of cryonic suspension (obviously names and specifics of
identities are neither appropriate or relevent for this purpose.)
>
>Martin S. Kardon, Esquire

Here are just a few off the top of my head.  Please don't ask for more
details.

Many years ago there was a woman that wanted to be suspended in Phoenix.
(She would have been one of the first).  She had a large estate and money
was not an problem.  While on her deathbed, the local doctor talked her
relatives out of it.

There was a VERY wealthy man who wanted to be frozen.  He knew his children
were greedy and would not want to have the money come from the estate to
pay for it.  So he put wording in his will that the children could not get
possession his money at his death, until after he was in suspension.

He died and got frozen.  Then the estate was passed on to the children.
After they had the bulk of the money, they got him unfrozen and got that
money back (a small part of the overall estate).

There was the lady in California that wanted her sister unfrozen so that
she could get a "decent" burial.


There are dozens more stories like this. Mike Perry, cryonics historian,
knows more about this that almost anyone else.

I was personaly involved in a real heartbreaker while I was VP at Alcor.
There was a young girl (about 30) who had a terminal condition.  She
learned about cryonics from my wife who was a friend or hers and had sold
her a dog.  She was a single girl and her father was worth hundreds of
millions of dollars.  She had never worked as he supported her.  He would
have granted her any wish including cryonics.  

After I had talked with her she told me she wanted to get signed up.
Several days later she called me and said she was not going to get frozen
because her family professional had consulted with her father and the
doctor told them both that cryonics would not work.

She died a short time later - unfrozen. 

Many of these stories happened long ago.  But the public opinion has not
changed - they don't think it will work and they think it is wrong.  The
reason we are moving so slow is because we have not done the ground work to
convince large amounts of people that this migght work and is worth doing.
Here are a few quotes on related subjects from some of the people who are
considered leaders in their field.

Ms. Alabama answering a question in the 1994 contest: If you could live
forever, would you and why?

Answer:  "I would not live forever, bacause we should not live forever,
because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever,
but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."

How about famous pop singer and teen idol, Mariah Carey:  "Whenever I watch
TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but
cry.  I mean I'd love to be skinney like that, but not with all those flies
and death and stuff."

Then there is this bit of wisdom from TV star, Brooke Shields when she was
doing an interview to become a spokesperson for a federal anti-smoking
campaign: "Smoking kills.  If you are killed, you've lost a very important
part of your life."

Mayor Marion Barry, Washington DC:  "Outside of the killings, Washington
has one of the lowest crime rates in the coutry."

Its these kind of statements about lack of respect for death that make me
believe that we cryonicists have a big job to do to educate our fellow
earth-sharers that life is good and worth living forever, and if we all
worked harder we might get a cure for death before we are all dead.

Dave Pizer

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