X-Message-Number: 3225
Date: Sat, 8 Oct 1994 01:02:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: CRYONICS:Reasons not to sign up


There is really no mystery about people's reluctance to sign up for
cryonic suspension, and it troubles me when cryonicists sometimes seem
exasperated, unsympathetic, or downright disgusted by people who opt for
mortality. Elitism always bothers me. Too often it is a sign of closed 
mindedness (exactly the sin which we ascribe to non-cryonicists).

Here are some typical (and in the subjective sense, valid) reasons why 
people don't sign up:

1.  Most people have religious faith which provides reassurance.
2.  Most people are to some extent afraid of the future.
3.  Many people do not trust current medicine, let alone future medicine.
4.  Many people feel their first obligation toward their families, and
    would feel guilty about spending money on life insurance for themselves.
5.  Most people are preoccupied with the short term rather than long term. 
6.  Cryonics may seem a form of wasteful self-indulgence.
7.  Cryonics is likely to seem wacky. "If my business associates ever 
    find out about this, my career will go down the tubes."
8.  Cryonics organizations are small and relatively under funded.
9.  Cryonics is unregulated, untested, unproven.
10. Cryonics groups are staffed by activists or underpaid employees, many of 
    whom have no professional qualifications or business experience.
11. No human being or mammal has ever been revived after 100% freezing.
12. Orthodox scientists mostly laugh at cryonics.
13. There is no guarantee that people in the future will defrost anyone.
14. Signing for cryonics entails the most painful acknowledgment of one's
    own mortality.
15. Cryonics sign-up paperwork tends to be overwhelmingly complex and 
    full of worrisome disclaimers of liability.
16. Some cryonics patients were allowed to thaw in the past.
17. There is no known way, as yet, to prevent or repair freezing damage.
18. The idea that life processes can be arrested and restarted is a gross
    violation of most people's instinctive ideas on the subject.
19. Anyone who dies in an accident is likely to be autopsied, which will
    probably include dissection of the brain.
20. If you allow yourself to believe that cryonics has a chance of working,
    you have to reconsider many fundamental aspects of your life.

I could go on, but you get the general idea. There are, in conventional 
terms, excellent reasons for ignoring cryonics. Our task should be to 
acknowledge those reasons and understand the feelings that are associated 
with them, as a preliminary process before trying to "convert" anyone. If 
you don't show some sympathy toward a potential client's point of view, 
you probably won't succeed in selling him anything. And since cryonics 
should always be a freely chosen option, the "hard sell" approach is out 
of the question.

Naturally, I believe there are good answers to all the points I have
listed above, otherwise I would not have signed up, and I would not be
trying to promote cryonics. But I still respect other people's points of
view. 

############################################################
Charles Platt, 1133 Broadway (room 1214), New York, NY 10010
      Voice: 212 929 3983      Fax: 212 929 4467

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=3225