Though based in the United States, the Cryonics Institute (CI) welcomes those living outside the United States as Members. We offer human cryopreservation, pet cryopreservation and tissue/DNA cryopreservation to CI Members around the world. Persons outside the United States become CI Members in the same way as do people in the United States do: by sending in a completed application form and paying the Membership fees. CI Members outside the United States receive cryopreservation services the same way CI Members inside the United States do: by signing contracts, by arranging payment for the contracts and by the services of a funeral director who is local for the Member.

Non-American members have served as advisors and on our Board of Directors. The current Vice-President of the Cryonics Institute, John de Rivaz, is a British resident. Marta Sandberg, who lives in Australia, is also on the CI Board of Directors.

In fact, well over one quarter of our current membership resides outside the US. There are CI members in Britain, Turkey, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Canada, Germany, Austria, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, Japan, Spain, Singapore, Romania, the Netherlands, Malta, New Zealand and Australia, among other countries. (See Cryonics Institute Statistics Details for more information.)

The European Cryonics Group is closely associated with CI (an alliance that began when the cryonics organization Alcor temporarily had a policy that was unfriendly to the idea of overseas members in their cryonics organization).

The purpose of the group is to offer help, support, and information to CI members in Europe and the European Community, and to provide quarterly meetings where any British resident or European interested in cryonics can come to meet and socialize and exchange information and ideas. The website serves as an information service to other groups throughout Europe and its main page gives an array of flags with appropriate links to other groups in countries in geographical Europe. There is information about insurance and other support within the UK. There is also an independent UK standby self help group available linked off this page.

The organization has its own web page at www.cryonics-europe.org and offers an email mailing list. People interested in joining the list or in getting more information should contact the European Cryonics Group via its web page at http://www.cryonics-europe.org or subcribe directly simply by sending a blank email to CryonicsEurope-subscribe@yahoogroups.com .

(Note: although a number of current Cryonics Europe members are members of CI as well, the European Cryonics Support Group (Cryonics Europe) is a separate and independent organization from CI, and is not legally affiliated with or connected to the Cryonics Institute in any way. CI encourages helpful and supportive activity on the part of active cryonicists, but disclaims any and all legal responsibility for claims made or actions taken by the Cryonics Europe, or by the Standby team associated with it.)

Can Members Outside the United States Receive Adequate Cryonics Care?

Europeans, Asians and others thinking of joining may wonder whether the long distance from the United States is a critical factor in considering joining. Can CI provide cryopreservation services in time at such a distance?

Again, the answer is yes. Because CI supplies cryonics care to people overseas in the same way that it does to Americans. In order to quickly reach members, CI locates and instructs the local funeral director nearest to the member (American and non-American) in methods that minimize damage. It is a funeral director in the cryonics patient's own country who will pack the patient in ice and ship to the CI facility in Michigan.

In addition, CI has instructed F.A. Albin & Sons to perform cryonics procedures in the European area. Albin & Sons, which has been in business for over 217 years, can use light private aircraft to reach members at any point in the European continent (and indeed adjoining areas in East Europe, Russia, and the Middle East) and provide cryonics services.

After performing the procedure, Albin & Sons can cool the patient down and transport the patient by plane or ship to CI's storage facility in the United States.  Members may choose the services either of Albin & Sons or a nearer individual, or be helped by the coordinated efforts of both.

Albin & Sons can be reached by contacting Barry Albin at:

F. A. Albin & Co
Arthur Stanley House, Culling Road
London SE16 2TN, UK
PHONE: 071-237-3637,
071-237-2600 or
071-237-6366
FAX: 071-252-3205
http://www.albins.co.uk/

Would a European member nonetheless be better off closer to CI facilities? The answer is: probably, but not certainly. Every CI Member in a terminal condition not living in Michigan -- whether American or non-American -- should attempt to relocate to Michigan if at all possible.

A terminal overseas resident may call a local funeral director willing to be placed on alert and upon expiring may be immediately treated and cooled. Such a person will be in considerably better condition than an American who dies alone and is not found for two days, or dies under circumstances in which government officials require that an autopsy be performed.

Circumstances very often dictate the final condition of the patient. But while those circumstances cannot be controlled, they can be fortunate as well as unfortunate, and European members can sometimes receive as good or better cryopreservation from outside America than they might have received inside it.

There are developments in Europe that might very well herald superior cryopreservation for cryonics members there.

While CI is on the side of preserving life, not taking it, it is a fact that in the Netherlands, for instance, has recently passed a euthanasia law allowing people to terminate their lives on request.

Our understanding is that this option is only available to Dutch citizens with terminal illnesses who can convince two medical doctors that their pain is unbearable; nonetheless, for Dutch members this new development may clearly provide an opportunity for better cryopreservation, and similar or further developments may in time do the same for other European members.

Assisted suicide is also available in Switzerland, and the country is more amenable than the Netherlands to allowing the use of such service by those who are not Swiss citizens. (See Experts call for clear euthanasia rules.)

A member with Alzheimer's Disease, for instance, might no longer have to face many years of expensive, painful, and debilitating illness that causes extensive destructive of the brain prior to death. He or she could be cryopreserved at a time when his brain and faculties and finances are still in optimum condition.

There are a number of informative web pages on cryonics and cryonics in Europe and elsewhere by European and other activists and web authors. To briefly review the major ones:

Australia:

Geographically an Asian nation, Australia is currently represented by the Cryonics Association of Australia web page.

Canada:

Go to the Cryonics Society Of Canada (CSC) website to find an active national group, that has their own national e-mail list. Request to join the CSC Yahoo Group. Also visit The First Cryonics Case in Toronto, Canada to read about the involvement of a Canadian local group in the cryopreservation of a patient.

European Countries:

Enter the Cryonics Europe website to find links to the cryonics websites for BELIGIUM, DENMARK, GERMANY, NETHERLANDS, NORWAY, RUSSIA, SPAIN, SWEDEN and the UNITED KINGDOM.

Japan:

The Japanese Cryonics Association Home Page provides contact for a Tokyo-based discussion group which seeks to improve research and cryonics infrastructure in Japan.

New Zealand:

The New Zealand Cryonics Page is New Zealand’s contributions to the growing world cryonics movement.

United Kingdom:

In England, of course, the principal pages are John de Rivaz' Cryonics And Other Links, the European Cryonics Group, and F.A.Albin & Sons

Europe and the World:

CI offers a free monthly electronic newsletter called Long Life that sometimes touched on European and other global subjects. There is a mailing list about European cryonics at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/CryonicsEurope/ but it has rather low volume.

And if you've read all the information and want to become a CI member residing in, say, Europe or Asia or South America -- what next? How does the membership process work?

The same as it does for Americans. See the information box below.