Life Extension Society 990 N. Powhatan St. Arlington VA 22205 703-534-7277

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1994 VOL. II        LIFE EXTENSION SOCIETY NEWS        APRIL, 1994
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1994 Annual Meeting

A new Board of Directors was elected at the second annual meeting of the
Life Extension Society, held on February 6, 1994.  Returning Directors
are as follows: Austin Esfandiary, Greg F*hy, Cleve Lunsford, Mike
Miller, and Mark Mugler.  New Directors are Nooshin Mesbah-Karimi and
Joel Finkleman.

The Directors in turn elected officers for 1994.  The 1993 officers were
re-elected: Mark Mugler, President; Cleve Lunsford, Vice President;
and Joel Finkleman, Secretary and Treasurer.

The Board's priorities for 1994 are to beef up membership and get
members signed up with one of the national cryonics organizations. 
Long-term goals include establishing local backup cryogenic preservation
(cryonic suspension) capabilities and improving local knowledge about
life extension nutrition.


A Conversation with Mike Darwin

The March 13 meeting of LES was a conference call with Mike Darwin,
Principal of BioPreservation, Inc.  BioPreservation is the firm under
contract with the CryoCare Foundation to perform suspensions of its
members.

The purpose of the call was to hear Mike's opinions on what biostasis
capabilities LES should have to augment those available from
BioPreservation, ALCOR, or other organizations involved in remote
suspensions.

Mike recommended that LES acquire three components: a portable ice bath,
a heart-lung resuscitator (thumper), and a medications kit.  These will
enable LES to stabilize a patient if the remote team is not available.
The next stage of readiness -- blood washout -- is beyond our reach at
the present time.

These three stabilization components cost $5,000 to $6,000 up front.
Training would cost $800 to $1,000 per person.  Annual costs of replacing
the medications could be minimized by rotating aging stock between LES
and BioPreservation or ALCOR.

Mike also discussed the institutional relations needed for timely
suspension.  His advice: don't die accidentally, or suddenly, or of a
reportable disease.  Don't die in a hospital.  Make sure that your fellow
cryonicists have established good relations with a local morticians, who
can smooth the way with hospitals and coroners, provide transportation,
and initiate the "blood washout" phase of a suspension.


Upcoming Meetings

Pencil or click these tentative LES meeting dates into your calendar:

Apr 17   May 15   Jun 12   Jul 17   Sep 11   Oct 16   Nov 13   Dec 11

The April 17 meeting will be dedicated to a follow-up to the conversation
with Mike Darwin.  The purpose: to develop a strategic plan for acquiring
and maintaining local biostasis capability.  The key consideration is how
to finance the three stabilization components.

At the May 15 meeting, Mark Mugler will provide an overview of the signup
process for cryogenic preservation.  Mark has been suffering through the
process for some time now, and will share his lessons learned.  He will
cover estate planning, wills, advance medical directives, insurance, and
applications and agreements for the national cryonics organizations.

Future meetings include a followup meeting to discuss insurance, estates,
and trusts in more detail, and an overview of life extension nutrients.

The Life Extension Society is a mutual assistance organization.  We are
working together to ensure one another's survival.  Call a friend today
and tell him/her about LES!


Meeting of Washington Gerontological Research Group

As further evidence of the symbiosis among life extensionists,
cryonicists, and gerontologists, the February 15 meeting of the
WGRG had a hefty turnout of LES members.

Gregory F*hy, Ph.D., a cryobiologist with the American Red Cross, was
the featured speaker.  Dr. F*hy discussed evidence on how human growth
hormone and life extension nutrients may retard aging by protecting and
extending the body's abilities to synthesize protein, produce energy,
repair cells, and respond to foreign substances -- all processes
essential to life and health.

The WGRG meets in the evening monthly at George Washington University.
For information, contact Dr. Stephen Coles, 703-351-2740.


Coming in the LES News

Upcoming articles in the LES News include the following:

o Essential reading on life extension and cryonics
o FDA's policy on unapproved substances
o Saving $$ on life Extension Nutrients
o Results of April/May meetings


Guest Article:  Life Insurance for Cryonicists

Most cryonicists don't have enough wealth to prepay or fund a trust for
cryonic suspensions.  We can't plan when we are going to die, so we can't
count on saving for some future eventuality that may be closer than we
think.  We need to make sure funds are available whenever needed.  That
is where life insurance comes in.  The funds available upon death are
called the death benefit.

With life insurance, you bet that you will die before you have sunk a lot
into the policy.  The insurance company bets you will last long enough
for the company to earn more off your funds than it pays out to you.
If you die young, you win the bet!

Term life insurance is the simplest type of life insurance.  The
insurance is available for a term -- say, 20 years, or to age 65.
Your premium every year buys a certain death benefit.  Each premium
represents a stripped-down mortality charge that buys only insurance --
it does not have an investment component.  For this reason, the premium
for a given death benefit usually is low initially and rises as you age.
If you discontinue the policy, or if you reach the end of the term,
you get none of your investment back.  You can buy a rider that waives
the premium if you are disabled, but what if you're broke?  The policy
lapses, the death benefit is zero, and you won't be cryonically
suspended.

Term insurance with constant premiums also is available.  Low later-year
premiums are cross-subsidized by higher early-year premiums.

Insurance that has an investment component is appealing because the
earnings of the investment component accumulate tax-free.

Whole life insurance is a traditional type of insurance that has an
investment component.  In its simplest form, its premiums are level
throughout the life of the policy.  The amount paid in the early years in
excess of a stripped-down mortality charge is used to build up guaranteed
"cash value," which corresponds to the investment component.  If over
time the company does better than its minimum expectation, the cash value
will yield earnings and grow faster than guaranteed.

When you purchase the policy, you specify how the earnings from the cash
values are to be used.  The earnings may be used in three ways: paid out
as cash; left to accumulate in the policy; or used topurchase "paid-up
additions" (PUA's), that is, additional insurance.  Accumulating earnings
increases the death benefit gradually and increases future compound
earnings.  Purchasing PUA's also increases your death benefit, by a
greater amount, and the increased death benefits themselves have cash
value that grows over time.

Most whole life policies permit you to draw on cash values to pay the
premium if you are unable to, or choose not to, continue payment.  At
some point the premium "vanishes," that is, the policy will remain in
force permanently even if you do not pay any further premiums.  This
feature protects you if you are disabled or go broke after the vanish
point; therefore, you should purchase the waiver of disability rider but
discontinue it once you reach the vanish point.

With a typical whole life policy, when you purchase the policy you may
include a rider that permits you to purchase PUA's with an extra payment
over and above the premium.  An additional payment on the order of 50
percent of the base premium is permissible under the tax laws without
incurring adverse tax consequences.  This feature permits you to increase
the death benefit more rapidly than by simply purchasing PUA's with
cash value earnings.  Since the PUA's have cash value, you will reach
the vanish point more quickly.  Faster growth in death benefit and
earlier premium protection are two advantages of the PUA rider for
the cryonicist.

Whole life policies also permit you to borrow the cash value.  However, a
cryonicist is interested in the death benefit, which would be reduced by
the amount of borrowed cash value.

Whole life policies are conservative (low risk, low reward) because they
guarantee certain cash values but may earn less than other investment
vehicles or other types of life insurance that have an investment
component.  To provide a more aggressive investment vehicle, hybrid types
of policy have arisen that include an investment component overlaid on
a term premium structure.  Under these policies, cash values, death
benefits, and/or premiums may vary with earnings.  There is greater
potential for high earnings, but also greater potential for paying
premiums after a hoped-for vanish point, or for a less-than-hoped for
death benefit.  These policies are less suited to the basic need for
a predictable or minimum death benefit.

If you need a conservative, forced savings vehicle to provide a
guaranteed minimum death benefit for cryonic suspension, whole life
with disability waiver fits the bill.  If you are cash-poor, term
insurance with disability waiver is probably the least expensive
alternative for you, but you should use it only as a stop-gap.  If you
are financially secure and less risk-averse, you should investigate the
hybrids as an investment vehicle.  If you are financially secure but
interested in investing elsewhere, term insurance may be for you.

To contribute a guest article to the Life Extension Society News, send
the article to the address below.


Life Extension Society 990 N. Powhatan St. Arlington VA 22205 703-534-7277