X-Message-Number: 18260
From: 
Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2001 09:32:03 EST
Subject: Kent's questions

Kent (#18254) has some questions. Most of them are addressed in detail on our 
web site, but very briefly:

CI accepts members in Canada, or anywhere. Sometimes foreign members have 
special problems related to local laws or customs, but in Canada, as far as I 
know, there are special problems only in British Columbia.

If you want a separate trust for funds for your personal use after revival, 
you can set up a trust in a jurisdiction where there is no rule against 
perpetuities, as in Delaware in the U.S. It is also possible to set up a 
trust where the rule against perpetuities does exist, but word it in such a 
way that the outcome is likely to be as you desire. (We have examples.) 
However, it isn't easy to find trustees and successor trustees willing and 
competent both to manage your money well and at reasonable cost and to make 
any decisions about your person, such as when to revive you and in what 
manner. My own choice is just to leave my estate to CI. This will not be 
earmarked for my personal benefit, but will strengthen the organization and 
help all patients. The money will be managed, and reanimation decisions made, 
by policies of the Board of Directors of CI, who charge nothing and have a 
personal interest in the welfare of CI and its patients.

Vitrification--see our web site. It means a kind of solidification without 
crystallization (ice formation). It is not yet available, although Alcor 
believes its current procedures, based on 21st Century Medicine's work, 
probably comes close. Whether it will ultimately be the method of choice is 
not yet clear. Our own ongoing research should eventually clarify these 
questions, as well as providing periodic improvements in our current methods.

Changing your sex before revival to consciousness should be relatively easy 
at some future time, as far as anatomy and physiology are concerned. 
Psychology, or personality integration, is another matter. However, CI only 
promises to consider any written requests of the patient, subject to our 
policies at the time.

Your plans, of course, in our opinion, should be primarily to make 
arrangements for yourself, and preferably for your family, for suspension 
when the time comes. Trying to plan for life after revival is probably a 
waste of time, since there are too many unknowns. CI will do its best not 
only to keep you safe and ultimately revive you, but also to rehabilitate 
you.

We expect you will be reanimated not into "another body" but into the same 
body after repair, which may include regeneration of parts or tissues. Yes, 
it will be like awakening after sleep, or after anaesthesia, and with your 
same awareness and memories, if success is complete. If, at a particular 
time, full success is not assured, then CI will make the decision either to 
wait longer for more advanced capabilities, or possibly to revive you in 
spite of some anticipated changes or deficiencies, whatever will best serve 
your interests in the judgment of our technical people at the time.  

Planning your trip to the future is primarily a relatively simple matter of 
joining and doing your paperwork and setting up the funding and working with 
us on local emergency arrangements.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
www.cryonics.org

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