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author: niplav, created: 2021-09-04, modified: 2021-09-04, language: english, status: notes, importance: 4, confidence: likely

The state of information about the legal and logistical hurdles for a successful cryopreservation in countries outside of the United States (and perhaps Canada) is dire. Here I attempt to collect information related to such hurdles and, if possible, how to overcome them.

Cryonics Outside of the United States

Hello! You are probably here because you are considering signing up for cryonics or are already signed up and want to improve your chances of making it into the future.

This text deals with the period from signing up to the moment when you are stored in your cryonics organisation's dewar. In particular, it deals with the questions about which additional documents to fill out, which people you have to talk to, and where you could move before dying to improve your chances of your body landing in liquid nitrogen after deanimation.

This guide does not deal with the question whether it is a good idea to sign up for cryonics, or how to do so in the US. I assume you have made up your mind about that already. Coincidentally, I believe signing up for cryonics is a good idea (see Urban 2016 and perhaps my own cost-benefit analysis). For instructions on how to sign up for cryonics in the US, see here.

Structure

This text is structured as a nested list, iterating through the possible options for each section and subsection:

• General Considerations: Things that are generally wise to do, regardless of place of residence (this point can also be a subsection of any other section)
• Place of Residence: Where the cryonicist is currently located (ideally, a permanent residence with citizenship in the country they reside in)
  • Contract with a {Country} Organisation: Depending on the location of your cryonics organisation, different regulations apply (though most of that should be handled through your membership application and contract)
    • Type of Death: Depending on your type of death, different considerations apply. Generally, this text divides conditions of death into slow/medium/fast (how much time do you have from the moment you know that you will very likely die to the moment of your death?), young/old (how old are you at the time you die) and deteriorating/non-deteriorating (is your brain deteriorating as you are dying?)
      • Types of Logistical Hurdle: There are several steps that need to happen between the cryonicist being alive and them being in safe preservation. Improving their probability of success and speed on each one of them is beneficial. These are:
        • Getting near the storage facility
        • Getting into a hospital
        • Getting resuscitated
        • Being cooled
        • Getting to the cryonics organisations storage facility
        • Being vitrified

Needless to say, this guide will very likely never be finished: Collecting the information about all regulatory hurdles in all countries for all possible causes of death and all possible steps to successful preservation would probably take more than a lifetime of work, and be obsolete by the time it is finished.

My initial plan for this document is to first document my personal strategy for cryonics signup, and then search for people who have signed up for cryonics outside of the US to ask them about their considerations.

Ideally, this document would grow over time, as people from different countries contribute the precautions they have taken.

If you don't have a US citizenship and have signed up with cryonics, or have considered and researched it, but rejected it for logistical reasons, I would like to talk to you about why and how (email address is rot13ed).

European Union

Germany

General Considerations

Contract with a US Organisation

Slow Young Deteriorating Death