From: tolman%asylum.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman)
Subject: Long term accountability
Date: 20 Nov 92 12:34:42 MST
Organization: University of Utah, CompSci Dept


  As has been brought up elsewhere, how can we insure the responsibility
and accountability of cryonics organizations?  How can we be assured that
the administration will do a good/adequate job?

  This is one of if not the most important problems facing cryonics.  The
nature of cryonics undoubtably will attract charlatans and rip off artists..
huge amounts of money are involved, with the entire enterprise founded on
speculation and placing trust in an organization with no true accountability.

  The cryonics institutions MUST last for hundreds if not thousands of years
for there to be a chance of revival.  This is asking for more than what is
expected of even most countries.*  The cryonics organizations therefore should
be founded thoroughly on well thought out platforms which take into account
human fallibility, human greed, and which have escape mechanisms along with
self correcting mechanisms.

  Do the cryonics organizations today have any of these qualities?  Apparently
not.  Thus, the chance of success of cryonics for an individual is 
significantly lessened, if not eliminated.

  So, I would like to hear different mechanism and ideas which would help
insure the survival of cryonic suspendees.  Some immediate ideas of mine 
follow:

 1) A cryonic suspendee would be assigned a living individual who would
safeguard that person's well being.  If there are more suspendees than
individuals, then living individuals would have the responsibility for
more than one suspendee.  Thus a living individual would at least have the
CAPACITY to act in the suspendees interest, while the suspendee has no
capacity to act in any way at all.  Inheritence of responsibility could
occur through mutual consent before death, or some other agreement.  This
implies that a living individual has some power over the suspendee as well...

2) A suspendee would sign up for a contract which functions as a "share"
which can be readily transferred from one cryonics organization to another.
Thus a person wishing to switch organizations can readily AND EASILY do
so.  This allows people to avoid being locked into a particular (inferior)
program.  It provides feedback because organizations would have to keep a
tight ship to avoid losing all of its members.  It also would avoid the
large amount of paperwork and legal bull involved with signing up anew with
another organization.  Once dead, the living individual (in 1) would have
the power to transfer "ownership" of the suspendee to another organization
which they felt was more responsible or had better care.  Accounts for
patient care would have to be kept independent.  This requires of course..

3) Multiple cryonics organizations of high repute.  Having only one viable
competitive cryonics organization is not adequate and insures disaster.
















* The American Government, founded in 1776 has only been around 216 years.
This is probably the minimal time required for technology to reach
a reconstruction process, and probably will take much longer.  Would you 
trust the government to run your cryonics?  Would you trust an organization
which contained LESS checks and balances than the government?

Newsgroups: sci.cryonics