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JGWeissman comments on *Cryoburn* by Bujold - Less Wrong Discussion
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That does not sound like real-life Alcor and Cryonics Institute.
No, but I think things will be different once revival is possible and cryonics is common-- not necessarily different in the way which made an interesting plot feasible, of course.
I expect that when revival is possible it will be based on something like uploading (most likely), cloning a new body, or repair by nanotech. Which would work to reverse any cause of death that allows for cryonic preservation. At this point, if the revival technique is related to cloning, there may be a use for cryonics for known short time while a clone is prepared, but there would not be a use for today's practice of cryonic preservation for an indefinate time waiting for a revival technique to be discovered. When revival is possible, cryonics will not be common.
Well we are talking about a universe where designer babies (heck species), artificial wombs, etc. have existed for hundreds of years but there have been no real advances on the anti-aging front aside from reversible cryonics (yay!) and clone-body transplants (boo!). IIRC the lack of real anti-aging tech was hand-waved as being due to not enough people caring to fund the research because clone-body transplants work just fine for those few jerks that want to live forever badly enough.
But then again, I seem to recall that in one of the earlier books Miles was able to use his youthful appearance to trick someone into thinking he had access to a new technology for rejuvenation. Clearly there was some interest. Apparently curing aging is just really hard in this universe.
Right now, it seems like people working in cryonics are primarily motivated by the thought of saving lives. If/when cryonics organizations get big and powerful (as they are in the book), that can be expected to change.