Cryopreservation is a process that requires many steps, resources and most importantly: a lot of planning. It is a specialized service that can’t simply be mass-produced. We are talking about life after all and to preserve life we, at Tomorrow Bio, want to provide you with the best service possible. To guarantee that, it’s of utmost importance to have access to the financial means necessary for a high-quality cryopreservation.
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In this article, we'd like to explore a little more about how we allocate our members' financial resources.
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Investing in a future life
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Our cost covers two main aspects of cryopreservation: Standby, Stabilization & Transportation (SST) and Long-Term Storage.
We have prepared a little breakdown of the costs for you to understand the different services we are offering through our all-inclusive cryopreservation plans. All steps will be covered so that, after signing up, you won't need to worry about anything else.
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SST - 80K
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You might think that “SST” means we just come and pick you up, but don’t be fooled. Our standby, stabilization, and transportation service includes much more than that. Here’s a rundown of all the services you get by entrusting us with your cryopreservation.
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- Patient for the patient - Most cases of death have forewarning.
Should your physical condition weaken to a point where death could be imminent, your family or doctor should notify us. Our standby team will travel to your location in advance and stay in wait nearby, ready to start the procedure at any time. This provides the fastest response and, subsequently, the highest quality cryopreservation possible.
The only exception is in the case of sudden death - less frequent but still a possibility. We have several emergency notification methods in place so that our team can still reach you as fast as possible.Â
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- False alarms, not a problem - Sometimes it can happen that a very dire-looking situation takes a turn for the better, and the patient recovers back to sufficiently good health. If this is the case, our standby team will consult a doctor to make an assessment. Should the patient be declared “out of danger”, our medical staff will return home and await new cases. Even if this were to happen multiple times, our plan will always have you covered.
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- No distance too far - One thing you can be sure of: If the location is reachable, we WILL reach you - as fast as possible. When it comes to our service it doesn’t matter if you die on vacation on the other side of the world, or right in front of our storage facility in Rafz. Be it by car, ambulance or plane (even private jet if necessary), our standby team is prepared to travel around the globe to reach you and give you the best possible cryopreservation. The only exception may be if your location is too dangerous to reach (e.g. North Korea or a war zone).
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- No patient left behind - The quality of cryopreservation might be affected negatively due to progressing biological decay if the arrival of a standby team is delayed. Nevertheless, there is no saying what future technology will be able to cure and which damages will be possible to reverse. Based on this, we won’t make any assumptions about it either. Even in the case of neurodegenerative diseases, or cases where we are unable to recover your body for an extended amount of time, we will still go through with the procedure. It is our promise to cryogenically preserve your body in the best state achievable.
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- Fully equipped for every case - The moment the patient is declared legally dead, the cryopreservation begins. Our Tomorrow SST ambulances are fully equipped for us to perform on-site cryopreservation. We use state of the art medical and surgical equipment for all of our procedures, a lot of which is one-use-only. Additionally, our perfusion circuit is custom-built, made from the ground up for the purpose of cryopreservation from our medical and engineering teams. This way we can provide each patient with the consistent care they signed up for.
‍ - ‍Fully ready for any circumstances - In case we need to reach our patient by other means than our ambulance, we are equipped with a portable perfusion system that allows us to do perfusion with CPAs in loco. On top of this, our medical staff is trained on real life scenarios (not just lab-simulated ones). We have multiple protocols trained depending on the condition of the patient.
‍ - ‍Continuously trained - Our medical teams aren’t just waiting around for the next patient. The teams regularly train and test new equipment on non-member body donors. No training is done on our members, by the time we reach you, our medical teams know exactly what to do to provide you with a high quality cryopreservation.
‍ - ‍Efficient transportation - For aerial transport, we have built a transportable cooling box that continues to cool down our patients’ body to the desired temperatures during transportation. No matter where you are in the world (within the limitations we mentioned in point 3), we will cryopreserve you and transport you to our long-term care facility in Rafz, Switzerland, without any detours.
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Long Term Storage - 120K
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The European Biostasis Foundation’s (EBF) long term storage facility is based in Rafz, Switzerland. This location was chosen for multiple reasons. First of all, Switzerland is one of the safest places for cryopreservation worldwide. Geographically, it’s located in the middle of Europe, making it not just practical to reach from any other European country, but also very unlikely to be hit by any major natural disasters. Moreover, it is a low seismic zone, economically stable, and politically neutral. The political landscape is also well-suited for our operations because it has no laws impeding cryopreservation. There are, however, laws in place that prohibit EBF from discontinuing their operations. This comes from the fact that non-profit organizations in Switzerland are bound to their initially stated purpose for the full duration of their existence, making our long term cryopreservation storage one of the safest in the world.
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A very important aspect to keep in mind is that we don’t know how long our patients will need to stay cryopreserved. It might be decades, maybe centuries. No matter what happens during that time, be it financial crisis or socio-political turmoil, we want to be prepared. The 120K are managed by a patient care trust and put into very low risk investments. These investments will continuously make earnings of 1-2% above inflation, which is more than enough to keep patients preserved indefinitely.
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Once you are inside a cryogenic storage dewar, and your funds are safely invested, continued preservation is relatively easy, fail-safe and green. The funds are used to refill liquid nitrogen into the dewars on a weekly basis, keeping your body at -196°C indefinitely. It’s possible that less long term storage funds are necessary, but we can’t know that now. Given how many challenges could come up in the decades or centuries before revival might be possible (economic crises, political turmoil, etc.), we’d rather be safe than sorry. Having extra funds per patient gives our patients a better chance at making it to the future.
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If there are funds left (and if money is still a thing at the point of your revival) you will likely receive them back as “starting money” for your future life.
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Our funding recommendations
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To make funding easier, we recommend that you use one of the following options:
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Term Life Insurance (most common & easiest method)
- This plan immediately covers you for the full price of cryopreservation for a set amount of time (usually until ~65 years of age)
- Calculate your initial insurance price estimate by using our calculator
- After completing step 1 and step 2 of our sign up process, all you need to do is to fill out a document including your medical history that will be submitted to our insurance partner. If you would like to find your own insurance provider, this is also possible.
- The insurance firm will give a cost estimate - the younger and healthier you are the less expensive this is going to be. Prices start at around 20€ per month.
- If you accept the terms and conditions, you will be fully covered immediately until the end of your term.
- Around 20 years before the end of your term we recommend starting another funding method (such as whole life insurance) which could take over if you live past the term.
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Whole Life Insurance
- If for some reason you don’t want to use term life insurance, you can opt for whole life insurance.Â
- This is essentially a savings plan with an insurance company that has a modest interest rate.
- Unlike term life insurance, whole life insurance doesn’t cover you immediately. Instead, the needed funds have to accumulate over time.
- As term life insurance has an ending date, we recommend that you start setting up a whole life insurance around 20 years before your term life insurance ends. This way, you’ll be able to cover the costs for your cryopreservation by the time your term insurance ends.
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Alternative Funding
- You are free to set up your own funding method
- This can be your own insurance or other means of guaranteed liquidity at the time of your cryopreservation.
- We only recommend this option if none of the others are available or feasible for you.
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Add the 25€/month membership fee (used for hiring and maintenance of medical standby teams, equipment, R&D and more) and you are all set up. Now, enjoy your present life. We'll take care of your future one.
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Conclusion
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So let’s wrap up: why should you choose Tomorrow?
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In addition to all the points presented, Tomorrow Bio is the first and only biostasis provider located in and focused on Europe. We offer flexibility, security and ease of mind by providing you the best all-around service:
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- Our SST will spare no expenses or efforts to reach you as fast as possible and start the cryopreservation process straight away.Â
- Our long-term storage is set up to last. However long it takes for technology to reach a point where revival is realizable, with Tomorrow Bio and EBF you are secured for the long-term.Â
- The Tomorrow Bio research & development team is constantly working on making our process more secure and efficient, so that you can benefit from state-of-the-art technology.
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We are working to make cryopreservation affordable for everyone. For that vision to become reality it is necessary to grow the field and make more people aware of the possibilities of biostasis. Economies of scale will help reduce cost more and more, once we have reached a wider audience. This prospect may still be a long way off, but you can already help the cryonics field. Join as a member, a fellow, or research supporter today, show interest and share your thoughts with your peers. Also feel free to share this article on social media. ;)
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If you want to know more about cryopreservation, schedule a call with us. We are happy to help with any questions you may have!
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All About Cryonics Funding
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