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Date: 20 Sep 90 23:41:15 EDT
From: STEVE BRIDGE <>
To: KEVIN <>
Subject: ALCOR FEES; DONALDSON SUIT
Message-Id: <"900921034115 72320.1642 EHI64-1"@CompuServe.COM>

TO: KEVIN

General Notice to prospectice Alcor members:
(From CRYONICS magazine, August, 1990)

>>Suspension Minimums to Rise.<<

     At the August 5th Alcor Board meeting, a resolution was passed
which will raise suspension minimums for Suspension Members joining 
Alcor AFTER JANUARY 1, 1991.  The new minimums are:

	NEUROSUSPENSION:  $41,000
	WHOLE BODY SUSPENSION:  $120,000

     Those persons who submit their $300 sign-up fee postmarked to 
Alcor before January 1, 1991 will be "grandfathered in" at the old rates
of $35,000 for neurosuspension and $100,000 for whole body suspension.
Existing Suspension Members will not be required to increase their funding 
minimums (i.e., they will not have suspension coveraged cancelled if they
do not increase their level of funding to meet the new minimums).

     Please note that Suspension Funding Minimums are just that:
__Minimums__.  We recommend that you provide as much funding as possible.
The safety margin calculated for the minimum level of funding is a slim
one, and does not really address costs such as those that may be assoc-
iated with the need to relocate in an emergency, pay for revival, and so
on.

     It was necessary to raise the Minimums due to increases in costs in
almost every area of the program over the nine years since the Minimums
were last raised.  Inflation alone has added 36% to the cost of living
since 1982, when the Minimums were adjusted up from $25,000 and $60,000
for neurosuspension and whole body suspension, respectively.

     Mike Darwin presents a fuller discussion of the reasons for the cost
increases in his article, "The Cost of Cryonics," elsewhere in the issue. 


>>Non-Member Suspensions Surcharged<<

     Due to the extra expense, extra difficulties, and marked extra risks
associated with last-minute, non-member suspensions, the Alcor Board of
Directors voted at its July, 1990 meeting to apply a $25,000 surcharge to
ALL such non-member suspensions.  Thus, whole body suspension for non-
members will check in at $125,000, with neurosuspension at $60,000
($145,000 and $66,000 as of January 1, 1990).

     Having done three non-member suspensions in less than a year, we are
rapidly becoming acquainted with the tremendous extra workload associated
with them.  Legally, financially, and otherwise we are tasked to perform
in a few days what normally we would do over the course of many months.
And the attendant risks present in such situations are such that we need 
to design cost protocols and legal mechanisms to protect ourselves.

     Such a surcharge is only fair to Suspension Members.  Suspension
Members have paid (often for decades) for emergency responsibility, and 
have helped to defray the costs of Alcor's readiness to respond.  They
have also provided the extensive legal and financial preparation required
to minimize the legal and financial risk to Alcor and insure that their
suspensions go smoothly.  Not only have non-members done none of this, 
but also they present risks associated with such problems as informed
consent, authority to act, and so on.


*************

     From Steve Bridge:

     For you folks who have thought about joining Alcor "sometime,"
it shouldn't take too much reading between the lines to realize that
NOW is a better sometime than after Jan 1st.  And definitely NOW is
better than after you are already pronounced dead, with frantic
relatives trying to get you suspended (or trying to PREVENT you from
being suspended; it works both way, and Alcor cannot act without legal
authority).

     If you are a student and wondering where to come up with the 
$300 sign-up fee and annual fees of $250, you should be aware that
the student rate for these fees is only one-half of the full rate.
In addition, even for full-rate members, the rate for additional
family members is one-half.  The funding minimums are not reduced,
but life insurance is fairly cheap for young people.  You might,
for instance, start with a neurosuspension membership and then
expand to whole body when you could afford more insurance, if that
was what you wanted.

     No statement yet from Alcor on whether such an upgrade would
be at the old rate or the new one; but I am asking that in a letter
to the Editor.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

LAST-MINUTE NEWS FLASH!

     Well, it's not all that exciting, actually.  The judge in Santa 
Barbara, CA has denied Thomas Donaldson's request for permission to
enter cryonic suspension before his legal death.  While this might 
seem on the surface to be a defeat for cryonics, it is not.  The judge
in the case expressed sympathy for Dr. Donaldson's position and 
(according to my sources) said that he wished he had the authority to 
allow Dr. Donaldson to do this.  He said that he understood that the
ruling would be appealed to the Appellate Court, where the issues
could more appropriately be discussed.  While we could wish that the
judge had been a little more courageous, this is exactly what our
attorneys had told us would happen.  They were planning all along
to make the major case the one at the Appellate Court.

     I'm sure Dr. Donaldson will provide us with more details on the
appeal as that draws nearer.

Steve Bridge, Midwest Coordinator
Alcor

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