Local Preparation and Transport Option

Choosing between a professional standby team and a “do-it-yourself” (DIY) local arrangement is one of the most significant decisions an individual planning to be suspended must make. At the Cryonics Institute (CI), we provide the resources for both paths, as each offers a distinct set of logistical and financial trade-offs.

The Local/DIY Approach: Regional Empowerment

In a DIY or local-resource model, the member must arrange a person or team (typically local family or close friends) to manage their cryonics arrangements when they pass, including notifying CI, initial cool down and more. This “point person” would also be working with first responders and local professionals—primarily a funeral director—to perform final stabilization and shipping. The member would be responsible for establishing these relationships and arrangements well in advance of a cryonics emergency, usually in tandem with their designated “cryonics point person.”

How it Works with a Funeral Director

1. Advance Coordination: The member establishes a relationship with a local funeral director who is willing to follow CI’s specific protocols. The member also sets up a cryonics point person to notify and coordinate with the funeral director upon the member’s death. 
   
2. Immediate Stabilization: Upon legal pronouncement, the director (or a pre-arranged local group) begins cooling the patient with ice water and may administer heparin to prevent blood clotting.
3. Shipping: If the funeral director is trained and willing, they could possibly also perform a blood washout and initial cryoprotectant perfusion if they are supplied with the solutions and instructions. However, this is typically performed upon arrival at CI or locally by a trained standby team. Otherwise, the patient is packed in a Ziegler shipping container, covered in dry ice, and shipped via commercial airline to CI’s Michigan facility.

Benefits of the Local Approach

• Lower Price Point: This is the most cost-effective method. You avoid the high deployment fees associated with professional standby companies.
  
• Speed of Response: A local funeral director is often minutes away, whereas a professional team may be hours away by plane in the case of an unexpected cryonics emergency. In cryonics, time is the enemy, and “instant” local help done right could potentially provide better biological preservation than delayed professional help.
  

Challenges and Risks

• Learning Curve: Most funeral directors have never handled a cryonics case. The member must act as an educator, providing them with CI’s Funeral Director Guidelines and ensuring they are comfortable with the technical requirements. Similarly, the member must also find and educate a local friend or family member to handle the local “on site” responsibilities associated with a cryonics emergency.
  
• Coordination Complexity: You must pre-plan with multiple parties, including hospital staff, the local coroner (to avoid autopsies), and first responders. If these individuals are not “in the loop,” legal and bureaucratic delays can occur at the moment of death.
  
• Technical Consistency: A funeral director may be excellent at embalming but lacks the specialized equipment (like heart-lung thumpers) that professional teams use to maintain circulation during cooling.
  

The Professional Approach: Outsourced Expertise

Members may choose to contract with organizations like Suspended Animation, Inc. (SA) to manage the entire “standby, stabilization, and transport” (SST) process.

How it Works with Professionals

1. Bedside Standby: Once a member is deemed “terminal,” a specialized team is deployed to wait at their location. In the case of an unplanned death, the standby team must travel as fast as possible to the location.
   
2. Advanced Medical Protocol: Immediately after pronouncement, the team uses proprietary equipment and chemicals to stabilize the patient at a medical grade before shipping.
   

Benefits of Professional Standby

• Expertise: You are paying for a team that does nothing but cryonics. They bring specialized knowledge and equipment that a general funeral director cannot match.
  
• Reduced Burden on Family: The team handles the logistics, legalities, and coordination, sparing your loved ones from managing a complex medical/legal process during a time of grief.
  

Challenges and Risks

• High Financial Barrier: This service typically requires significant additional funding—often doubling or tripling the total cost of your cryonics arrangements.
  
• The “Distance Gap”: If death occurs suddenly or before the team arrives, the “professional” advantage could be lost, with you effectively reverting to a DIY scenario but without the pre-planned local support.
  

Analytical Comparison

Conclusion

The “best” option is not universal; it is a pragmatic calculation based on your geography, budget, and personal abilities and confidence. If you are a proactive planner with a supportive local funeral home and limited funds, the DIY/Local approach offers a viable, cost-effective path to preservation. If you have the financial means and prefer to outsource the technical and emotional burden to experts, Professional Standby provides a higher level of specialized care.

Ideally a member would have both options prepared, particularly to be prepared for the worst case scenario of an unexpected death triggering an immediate cryonics emergency. We strongly recommend setting up at least basic local help (finding a designated “point person”) who would be able to do a basic cooldown procedure and, critically, advocate for the member’s cryonics wishes with potentially skeptical EMTs, first responders and other officials on site. This would introduce immediate attention in a time sensitive situation with that point person essentially “holding down the fort” until professional help arrives. As few people can predict the exact time and circumstances of their passing, this redundancy could significantly affect your preservation in the case of an emergency. 

Ultimately, every member must decide which risk they are more comfortable with: the technical variability of a local point person and funeral director or the financial and time / distance risks of a professional team.

Please reach out to our cryonics professionals who have been involved in hundreds of cases under all circumstances. With their hands-on expertise in every type of case, they can help you weigh all the options and determine the best options for your particular situation.

Remember This: The only wrong choice is failing to plan at all.