Episode 2 - Where can I get Cryonics care?

Amazon Polly American English Joey: Cryonic Stories. The Podcast for Cryonicists and Future-Oriented People. - Episode 2: Where can I get Cryonics care?

Philipp: Welcome to Cryonic Stories. My name is Philipp and I’m your host.

In this episode of Cryonic Stories, we will be talking about the available Cryonic Care institutes. All the information I will be talking about is either available on the website of the institute or Wikipedia. Take a look at the show notes to get a direct link to them.

As you might have guessed, there are several care providers available to choose from. All with their up’s and downs, and all with different services and prices. I will go through them in the order I heard from them and will provide a sum up at the end of this Episode.

Amazon Polly American English Joey: Alcor

Since I heard about Alcor at the same time I heard about cryonics, I will start with them. According to their website, Alcor was founded in 1972 by Fred and Linda Chamberlain in California.

The company is incorporated as a nonprofit organization and has a self-perpetuating board. They moved from California to Scottsdale in Arizona in 1994. They have got a whole page dedicated to why they moved to Scottsdale. According to them, the Phoenix and Scottsdale area is at the lowest natural disaster risk map of the united states.

Thinking about the long time cryonics might be around, it is definitely not a bad idea to choose a place where there aren’t many disasters to fight against.

They also formed a patient care trust in 1997 as a completely separate organization that is to keep funds of patients safe in case the company Alcor itself is attacked via lawsuits.

A regular newsletter is keeping patients and people interested in Alcor and cryonics on things that go on inside the company and in the cryonics sector in general.

To sum things up, I’ll give you an overview of the costs associated with cryopreservation at Alcor and ongoing membership.

Whole-body preservation is available at 200k US Dollar. Neuropreservation costs 80k US Dollar. Several surcharges are applied for cases outside of the United States and Canda. Also if you want to preserve a not member, for example, your wife who doesn’t have a contract with them but is suffering a terminal condition now, you are looking at another 50k.

As long as you are alive there is also a yearly fee of 550 US Dollars.

Alcor is definitely one of the more expensive cryo care institutes, but they have been in business for more than 40 years.

Let’s continue with:

Amazon Polly American English Joey: C.I. Cryonics Institute

They were the second company I heard about when I was researching cryonics for the first time. According to its website, CI was founded in 1976 by Robert Ettinger in Detroit. If you listened to the first Episode you know who Ettinger is, if you didn’t, consider listening to it after this one.

Just like Alcor, they operate as a non-profit organization. They moved to Clinton Township in Michigan in 1993. Almost on the opposite side of the United States, if you compare their location with the one of Alcor.

According to their website, they are currently the largest cryonics provider worldwide.

Unlike Alcor, they don’t have a Patient Care Trust and for me, it was hard to find suitable information about their money situation at all. But like Alcor, they are here since the beginning of cryonics and if you think about it, keeping a company alive for more than 40 years isn’t easy. Especially in a small niche as cryonics.

In contrast to other providers, CI is one of the cheapest. They are only doing whole-body preservation at a cost between 28 thousand USD and 35 thousand USD. Obviously additional costs apply if you’re not living near their facility. There are also yearly membership fees of 120 Dollars.

Just like Alcor, they have been in business since the beginning of the cryonics movement.

Next up:

Amazon Polly American English Joey: E.B.F. European Biostatis Foundation

Unlike CI and Alcor the European Biostatis Foundation isn’t here since the beginning of the cryonics movement, but they are the first once in Europe.

Like CI and Alcor they are built as a non-profit organization if a board of Trustees. Currently, they are at a very early stage of the organization itself. There is no facility yet, nor is there a standby team or a Patient Care Trust.

As far as I have heard, they will be managing preservation and storage through several sub-companies. All with the one goal to keep legal battles away from patients.

I talked to the Chairman of the Foundation myself in the past and I know several Trustees of the board. Even though they are at such an early stage of development, their plans seem huge but achievable.

The fact that they will be based in Switzerland, probably the safest country in the world, leads to good future projections for them.

I think they will definitely be a major player in the cryonics space in the upcoming years. A company on the European continent definitely will change things up. Specially for European patients.

Since there isn’t much information about their pricing available yet, I have to leave this section out. But as soon as there will be concrete plans or maybe even the first patients signing up, I will publish a whole Episode dedicated to them.

Amazon Polly American English Joey: KrioRus

Since you know now the two big players and one rising one, you might ask, why isn’t KrioRus part of the list?

Even though they exist since 2003 and they are currently the only provider in Europe and Asia with their own storage, there have been some bad rumours around them.

Since I don’t want to spread any rumours, you should take a look at them separately. There is a link to their website inside the show notes.

Amazon Polly American English Joey: Summary

Now, let’s take a quick recap on this episode.

Currently, there are four cryonics care providers available. All with separate pricing models and separate services. All of them have great websites and not only inform about their histories but also about cryonics in general.

As this podcast isn’t affiliated with any of the companies, I won’t give a recommendation. With an interesting topic as cryonics and longevity, you should take a look at all of them and build your own opinion.

Cryonics isn’t necessarily cheap but someone should look at it the same as an investment for retirement. If you retire, you don’t want to go back to work afterwards.

Your host, Philipp.

Amazon Polly American English Joey: Thank you for listening to this Episode of Cryonic Stories. If you want, subscribe for more Episodes.

**SHOWNOTES: **Alcor - https://alcor.org/ CI - https://cryonics.org/ EBF - https://ebf.foundation/ KrioRus - http://kriorus.ru/en