Help Alcor Fight Bad Legislation
The Alcor Life Extension Foundation is on the receiving end of some particularly obnoxious "shut them down without looking like we're trying too hard to shut them down" potential legislation in Arizona. It does look rather like the sponsoring politician is in the pocket of the funeral industry, but equally, Alcor seems to have been remiss in keeping tabs on the situation. (Rand Simberg commented pertinently on many of the relevant issues and motivations back when they first looked like becoming a problem). This has now become a last minute item, unfortunately, with a due date of Thursday 26th in the coming week.
Still, analysis later once the facts are out - let's help Alcor fight off this bad legislation first. Alcor's new president, Joseph A. Waynick (a man who has certainly inherited the hot seat), has put together a good set of information and some talking points that will enable you to send a polite, but firm letter to the Arizona legislature.
What are you waiting for? Read the summary, talking points, and send a letter!
The Longevity Meme now has a new "Take Action!" item up, which provides a little more information. For those of you who are still getting up to speed on the issues and concepts of cryonics as an industry and a service - and where it fits in to healthy life extension - here are some useful resouces:
Brian Wowk has written a very eloquent open letter about regulation and the cryonics industry. It's well worth reading, and I have posted a copy to the Longevity Meme:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/reprints/open_letter_concerning_cryonics_regulation.cfm
Ronald Bailey has written about this pending legislation at Reason Online:
http://www.reason.com/rb/rb022504.shtml
He calls it "one of the silliest pieces of 'consumer protection' legislation ever devised."
It sounds like victory. Alcor's CEO sent an e-mail out to their mailing list detailing the meetings today with Arizona representatives:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id=779
The end result will likely be some form of "benign regulation" of the sort achieved by the Cryonics Institute in Michigan, which represents a considerable defanging of the original bill.
A number of notables from the healthy life extension and scientific community (such as Aubrey de Grey and Saul Kent) stepped forward to make a difference, as did the community at large. It tends to take both to make legislators listen, at least in the absence of large donations. Arizona representatives have received hundreds of e-mails this week - so I think we can safely declare this action item a success!