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Recent mainstream media coverage of cryonics - low-temperature storage of the body and brain after death, awaiting technology advanced enough for resuscitation - has included ABC News coverage that leaves the reader with the impression that cryonics is only for the wealthy:
Being frozen and stored at Alcor isn't cheap.
"Some people just have their heads frozen, believing that in the future they'll be able to use another body," said Tanya Jones, Alcor's chief operating officer. "If you're having your head frozen, it will cost $80,000. The whole body is $150,000."
This omits any discussion of the method most folks - of very modest means - use to fund their suspension: life insurance.
At the time of writing, a 30-year-old can get a 20 year term policy with a face value of $120,000 for as little as $180 per year if she is a non-smoker and in good health.
Starving students can fund it - so you certainly can. You should look on a cryonic suspension agreement as a form of life insurance of its own; it's the best presently available option that gives some chance of avoiding irreversible death if it comes to that. Statistics and common sense tells us that we aren't all going to make it into the era of radical life extension. No-one likes to think about these things, but the consequences of failing to be responsible in any matters of insurance can be dire indeed.
Technorati tags: cryonics, life extension
Posted by Reason at January 25, 2006 10:10 PM
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