X-Message-Number: 7616
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1997 20:40:12 -0500
From: Garret Smyth <>
Subject: Cryonics marketing  - ethics

A conversation I recently had with a journalist prompts me to write this.

The suggestion was that people would take us (cryonicists) more seriously
if they thought that more people were signed up for cryonics. If there were
a large number of cryonicists then it would seem to be the beginning of a
new fashion rather than just something for the occaisional eccentric. "Just
mutiply your membership by a hundred" I was told, "who's going to check?".

Although such a policy would suddenly give Alcor a UK "membership" of
nearly two thousand I feel the benefits of the illusory gain would be just
that - illusory. We might get a bit of extra press coverage in the short
term, but in the long term the gain would be minimal and the downside could
well be complete loss of public credibility. If we're "wrong" about
something as simple as how many people have signed up, how can we be
trusted on the more complex things, for example how the patients' money is
handled, or anything scientific?

On the other hand, according to the journo, big numbers make good press,
and a little exaggeration for a good story hurts no one. I have trouble
with this idea. I'd be grateful for other's input.

TTFN


Garret


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