Even though it is not the “sexiest” part of cryonics, standby and transportation is nonetheless very important.  No, there are no shiny tanks and liquid nitrogen “smoke” bubbling out to capture your attention, but going by the old adage “rubbish in/rubbish out”, the better the standby and transportation, the better the chances are of a good suspension.

So what is available in Australia?  At the moment some, but not very much.  A good bet is to join Cryonics Association of Australia (CAA) and hope that a volunteer may be able to assist with it all when the critical time comes.   My estimate for a very simple standby with some limited transportation, but with no overseas transportation, costs in the order of $10,000 (this may be more if include additional funeral charges and transportation).  The costing can however vary widely, depending on individual circumstances. The CAA process probably involves a simple straight freeze.  Please remember though that CAA is a volunteer group and we should be very thankful we have even that.  I can get better costing for your individual situation if you contact me.

Let me add that if you are an Alcor member and have arranged for all the coverage (costs about $300,000, which includes about $60,000 for overseas cover), then you get full body standby/transportation using the latest pre-vitrification technology all professionally done.   For a neuro only, this is of the order of $150,000.  Use these numbers as a guide only.   I have tried to work them in A$ for very general examples. If you want the more accurate costs for your particular case, please go to the Alcor web site or discuss with me separately.

Back to what else is available in Australia if you are not an Alcor full overseas member.

If you go the Cryonics Services Australia (CSA) route, then at the moment the cost is about $30,000 to $40,000 which, includes transport to the US facility.  Please remember we are not talking about the suspension here.  This is just the standby and transportation.   All this is with professional central coordination, but not yet using the latest pre-vitrification technology.   At the moment the latest pre-vitrification techniques are not available in Australia. That is one of the things CSA is now working on.  See my previous blog.   If you go with the future (I hope in about 1 year) CSA route, with full pre-vitrification, then about $35,000 to $45,000.

Again a lot of this costing depends on your specific situation so if you are interested, please let me know.

All the above for CSA assumes you are in a hospital (or similar) in a major city and you need to be transported to the US.  Reduce these numbers by about $10,000 if Stasis Systems Australia (SSA) is up and running… perhaps in about 1 to 2 year’s time.  Remember the SSA fees for suspension are not expected to include standby/transportation.  SSA is being developed on the basis of being similar to the Cryonics Institute (CI) model.  i.e. the patient has to essentially be delivered to the CI door and then CI takes over.   So for SSA, when operational, you need to add the CAA or CSA standby/transportation fees to the SSA fees for complete cryonics cover.  I told you cryonics arrangements can be very confusing.  That’s why we formed CSA (i.e. Cryonics Services Australia) to help you through all this, so you do not have to worry about it.  Talk to us at CSA and we can help you with all this

For your information the CSA route also monitors your health to see if some sort of early warning can be set up. The aim is to get to you as fast as possible.  We hope the CSA route in the future (in about 1 year) will be at a level to match Alcor’s very professional system.  With our local knowledge and ability to get to a patient faster locally, we are confident we can provide a first rate service.

Excluding any normal suspension, storage etc. costs,  standby and transportation will cost you very approximately the following:

Wow!  You are talking about costs that are about as high as the suspension itself.  Yes we are, but as I said, if this is not done properly then the suspension is not done properly.  Also, in all this I have not mentioned the costs, which I briefly touch upon in my other blog, if things go well and you survive your hospitalization and do not need to be suspended.

If you want more information, please feel free to talk to me.  CSA has looked quite deeply into all this and you may be surprised at what is available to make it affordable.

Regards, Peter T