Cryonics organization Alcor opens a booth at the US funeral directors’ convention and offers funeral homes a fee for each family choosing cryonics as a third option alongside burial and cremation

Cryonics organization Alcor opens a booth at the US funeral directors’ convention and offers funeral homes a fee for each family choosing cryonics as a third option alongside burial and cremation

Alcor has booth No. 2847 at the convention in Charlotte, which runs from October 25 to 28. In its October 25 newsletter, Alcor suggested that this might be the first cryonics booth at such an event. Its The Third Way program invites funeral homes to become partners, offering families cryonics in return for a fee.

Alcor, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, cools people to liquid nitrogen temperature after legal death in the hope that future medicine will restore them to life. Procedures need to begin immediately after cardiac arrest, preferably within the first 15 minutes, Alcor writes. Delays damage blood vessels, making it harder to circulate a protective solution (a cryoprotectant) that prevents water in tissues from turning to ice.

To begin this process before transport to Scottsdale, Alcor developed field cryoprotection: a team gains access to the blood vessels on site and circulates the protective solution through them. This requires a room suitable for surgery and the owner's permission to use it. Funeral homes have such a space, the preparation room where bodies are prepared for funerals, and there are more than 15 thousand funeral homes in the US.

Alcor's report on case No. 245 describes what can happen without an agreement with a funeral home. In 2024, Alcor began contacting funeral homes to arrange access to a preparation room six days before the death of a member who had chosen preservation of his head, but no agreement was in place when he died. The funeral home chosen by the family refused to admit an outside team. Most funeral homes in the area belong to a single corporation that also bars outside teams. The team called about 25 funeral homes. One agreed to provide its preparation room and collected the body, but refused the team access the following morning because the person who had given permission lacked the authority to do so. The team drove the body nearly three hours to another city. There, vessels on the right side of the neck tore during attempts to connect them to the equipment. The team established access on the left, but fluid escaped through an opening they had made in the skull, and the head was frozen without protective solution.

“The lack of cooperation from funeral homes in the patient's state ultimately made field cryoprotection impossible because of damage to the patient's blood vessels 18 hours after cardiac arrest.”

The report adds that, until a contract is in place, all cases within a three-hour radius of the funeral home where the team eventually worked will be directed there.

According to Alcor, cooperation with funeral homes has largely been arranged case by case, and The Third Way is an attempt to make it standard practice. A funeral home can offer families cryonics and receive a fee for each completed arrangement; help a family obtain a life insurance policy to fund cryonics and receive a commission from the insurer; or provide a preparation room and receive a fee for each case that is above the industry average. Alcor supplies equipment and staff, arranges transport to Scottsdale, and promises exclusive territories to the first funeral homes to apply.

In its January newsletter, Alcor reported several promising discussions with potential partners. The program is managed by Cassandra Foifua, a certified funeral service professional. In August, Alcor tested the approach by sponsoring a meeting of funeral directors in one state and said it attracted early interest from prominent industry participants.

According to Alcor, it received 25 membership applications in September, with monthly applications throughout the year running at 20–25, compared with five to six previously. The process from application to full funding takes about three months, mostly spent waiting for the insurance company.