I. Overview

II. History

III. Methods of Cryopreservation    

IV. Cost of Cryopreservation

V. Issues with cryonics

VI. Philosophy & Ethics

VII. Conclusion

Cryonics: The New Biological Frontier?

I. Overview

Cryonics is the practice of preserving legally dead humans or pets at very low temperature (-196 °C) in the hope that future medical science will be able to cure them all of their diseases, restore them to life and rejuvenate them to a condition of perpetual youth (Badger, 1998). A person that is held in such a state is called a “cryopreserved patient”, because Cryonicists (the advocates of cryonics) do not regard the cryopreserved person as really dead (Cryonics Institute, 2002).   
Scientific support for cryonics is that most diseases, including “aging” which are the results of damaged organs, tissues, cells and cellular components, will eventually be curable through the repair capabilities of molecular biology and nanotechnology (Cryonics Institute, 2002). In essence, proponents of cryonics assume that diseases and aging are both reversible.
 Cryonicists advocate many points to justify that cryopreserved species can be restored to life. Some examples are the successfully cryopreservation of sperm in liquid nitrogen which is then used for fertilization; human’s embryos that have been stored in liquid nitrogen and later were able to be developed into normal children (Cryonics Institute, 2002).

[top]

II. History

The idea that it might be possible to preserve human life in a suspended state was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in 1773 in a famous letter (Drexler, 1986). Franklin was a famous American scientist who represented a major figure in the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity (Cryonics, 2006). However, the cryonics idea was outlined in 1962 by Ev Cooper in a privately published book entitled Immortality: physically, scientifically, now. Later, in the same year, Robert Ettinger (a Michigan college physics teacher), privately published the book The Prospect of Immortality in which he proposed that freezing people may constitute a way “to reach future medical technology” (Cryonics, 2006). Ettinger agreed that freezing a person may indeed be fatal, but he argued it may be reversible as well in the future. He even goes on saying that even the stages of clinical death may be reversible in the future (Cryonics, 2006).
Two years later after Cooper published his book, he established the Life Extension Society in the objective of making cryonics a practical reality. However, toward the late 1960s, Cooper became cynical about cryonics and later lost at sea in his sailboat (Cross, 1983). It was Ettinger who came to be accredited as the originator of cryonics. Many believed that Ettinger won that title because his book was republished in 1964 by Doubleday on recommendation of Isaac Asimov and Frederick Pohl who certified that Ettinger’s book deserved scientific merit. In 1976, Ettinger founded the Cryonics Institute in order to promote freezing people (Cryonics, 2006).  
Several other cryonics organizations would later be created. In 1965, Curtis Henderson and Saul Kent founded the Cryonics Society of New York or CSNY (Cryonics, 2006). In 1966, both Cryonics Society of Michigan or CSM and Cryonics Society of California (CSC) were founded. Bay Area Cryonics Society (renamed the American Cryonics Society or ASC), was founded in 1969. In 1972, Fred and Linda Chamberlain established “Alcor Life Extension Foundation,” which is now one of the world largest cryonics organizations (Cryonics, 2006).
Cryonics suffered in 1979 after it was discovered that nine bodies stored by CSC in a cemetery in Chatsworth, California, thawed due to lack of funds. As a result, the head of CSC was sued and cryonics growth became slow for several years afterward. The CSC scandal allowed all the other cryonics societies to adopt strict financial control and therefore became better at maintaining many other cryonics cases. However, Cryonics gained new support in 1980s after Eric Drexler, an engineer from MIT, published several papers and books that foresee molecular nanotechnology as a new field. Drexler wrote an entire chapter on the application of cryonics in his 1986 book entitled “Engines of Creation.” Others saw the future of cryonics in nanotechnology due its molecular repair potential of injured tissues and organs.  Nanotechnology provides a way to repair molecular damages to proteins, DNA and other macromolecules (Cryonics, 2006).

[top]

III. Methods of Cryopreservation

This outline of cryopreservation procedures is adopted by CI and is similar in many respects to the procedures of other cryonics organizations.

First of all, the person has to be legally declared dead after the clinical death—the    cessation of heartbeat and breathing. Then, immediately after pronounced dead, ice should be applied on that person, especially on the head, to cool that person down. It would be better for the person to die at home under the care of either trained personnel or a CI volunteer. If allowed by local rules or regulations, an anticoagulant should be legally injected—usually heparin, 30,000 units for a patient of average size. During transportation to the Cryonics Institute, if not contraindicated, CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) should be applied either manually or by machine to keep oxygenated blood circulating, minimize deterioration, help the patient cool, and help distribute the anticoagulant (Cryonics Institute, 2002).
Prior to being taken to the CI facility, the patient is usually sent to a funeral home for blood washout and perfusion. The person’s blood is washed out with a washout solution and a mixture of CryoProtectant Agents (CPAs, “anti-freeze” substances that prevent ice formation), which is used to replace the patient’s body water. The blood vessels are cannulated for these perfusions—the pumping of fluids through blood vessels (Cryonics Institute, 2002)Cryonics Institute.
After washout and perfusion, the patient is packed in dry ice and transported to the CI facility. There, the patient is placed in a sleeping bag, tagged, and cooled down further. It takes several hours to cool down to -120 C and about four or five more days to cool to liquid nitrogen temperature. The cooling is controlled by CI’s computer-controlled cooling box. At the end of cooling, the patient is fully transferred to the cryostat—long-term storage unit (Cryonics Institute, 2002).

[top]

In order to perform perfusion with cryoprotectants, the pet has to be placed in refrigerator or in a container filled with ice and ice-water a soon as the pet is dead. If the pet is already placed in a freezer, perfusion with anti-freeze cryoprotectants will not be able to be performed because of ice formation that may have already damaged the blood vessels. In this case, leave the pet in the freezer until ready for shipment to the CI facility (Cryonics Institute, 2002).
When shipping, place the pet in a well-insulated container which can hold the pet and enough ice to keep cool during the entire shipment. Extra care should be taken to prevent the container from leaking water. At the CI facility, the pet will be taken care as outlined in human cryopreservation method above (Cryonics Institute, 2002).

[top] 

IV. Cost of Cryopreservation
These costs are from the CI and are comparable to the price of other Cryonics facilities.
The cost of cryopreserving a cat is $5, 800, a dog $5, 800 up to 15 pounds in weight plus $150 per pound for every pound above 15. The cost for a bird of typical size is $700, but the price may higher for a very large bird. There is not an actual listed price for other animals, but the weight scaling for dogs is considered the guideline for heavier animals. All these prices exclude the cost of membership, shipping, and veterinarian expenses (Cryonics Institute, 2002).
The price of human cryopreservation is $28, 000 if one is already a member. The price is higher if one is not a member. The total price is $95, 000 if it is Insurance-funded and include basic SA Standby/Transport plus CI Perfusion/Storage. These costs are only for members who pay in full. The cost is varied if being paid on a yearly basis or other means (Cryonics Institute, 2002).

[top] 

V. Issues with cryonics
Ben Best presents the most frequently asked questions about cryonics. He is the President and CEO of the Cryonics Institute—one of the largest cryonics organizations in the world (Cryonics, 2006).  

Cryonics is facing many social obstacles and these obstacles raise many doubts over the hope of scientific success of cryonics. The main social obstacle critics raise is that cryonics cannot possibly work and therefore cryonics only freezes dead people since no one can raise a dead person except for God. “Death” is defined as permanent cessation of all vital functions. However, Cryonicists advocate that present medical practice is erring in declaring a patient dead. Cryonics is based on the idea that the future ability to revive a patient preserved with today’s technology implies the patient was not really dead. Cryonicists argue that although a person may be legally dead, such person is not necessarily irreversibly dead. Cryonicists point out that ‘dead people” –those with permanent cessation of vital function, are revived every year in hospitals all over the world. Someone whose heart has stopped is clinically dead, but applying a defibrillator may restart the heart again. Also it is argued that Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR has been used since in the 1950s to restore life to people who were wrongly considered to be absolutely dead (Cryonics Institute, 2002).
Critics raise another question concerning the reason why future society should care for reviving dead people. Cryonicists strongly reject the idea that they are trying to revive or raise dead people, they simply view cryonics as a highly experimental procedure. They believe that the objective of cryonics is no less different than the objective of medicine itself. Medicine is using several tools and methods to keep people healthy and prevent them from deteriorating. Cryonics views itself as promoting longer and healthier life. “Cryonicists make best efforts to minimize tissue deterioration and to maximize the future potential for life” (Best, 1990).

[top]  

Many people argue that the cost of cryonics is much too high. However, advocates of cryonics argue that only the minimum fee is charged for cryopreservation. Cryonicists say that it is necessary to maintain the patient in liquid nitrogen indefinitely. Liquid nitrogen can boil-off to amount to several hundreds dollars per month for a single patient. Cryonicists also argue that it takes a certain amount of money for maintenance, labor, physical container and physical space (Best, 1990).
Some people argue that only rich people can afford cryopreservation and therefore this constitutes a sort of eugenics. However, Cryonicists suggest that people take a permanent life insurance policy for about $100,000. They believe this is typical for any U.S. middle-aged person. It is also argued that the price for cryopreservation is not any more expensive than a house in a poor area. It is believed also that if people can afford living, such as buying a house, providing for a family and taking any other types of health insurance, then it is more likely to afford cryopreservation. Cryonicists also point out that most people who say that they are too poor to afford cryonics are the ones managing to afford nice homes, cars, vacations or expensive hobbies (Best, 1990).

[top]

VI. Philosophy & Ethics

Cryonicists argue that cryonics does conflict with religion any more than medicine is in conflict with religion. It is believed that opponents of cryonics hold a false belief in cryonics when they view it as an attempt at resurrection. Cryonics should rather be viewed as a form of life support as opposed to resurrection. Proponents of cryonics argue that if Christians embrace heart bypass surgery, CPR, and hypothermia rescue, they should as well accept cryonics as another medical technology (Best, 1990). Actually, a careful analysis does show that cryonics is an attempt at resurrection. Based on the Bible, resurrection can be defined as bringing a dead body back to life. The medical procedures, such as PCR, don’t really bring a dead person back to life, but rather it should be as the person may not have been dead. It may have been that the vital functions that are believed to stop working do actually work, rather at a state that human technology cannot detect. Christians should not accept that a person can be brought back to life, except by God. 

[top]

Many cryonicists believe in the existence of a soul, and they argue that the soul of a cryopreserved person remains and does not go anywhere. Their argument is based on the fact that cryonics is simply an unproven medical procedure and therefore no one would expect the soul to go away upon cryopreservation. Also it is argued that since the soul does not depart after a simple cardiac arrest (which can be anywhere from minutes to hours depending on the cardiac arrest), then why should the soul depart in a longer cardiac arrest. They infer that cryopreservation can be compared to a state of long cardiac arrest and that person will eventually recover from that state (Best, 1990). Based on the Christian faith, cryonics should not be viewed as a long cardiac arrest that will be eventually recovered. It has never been proven that a patient with long cardiac arrest returned to normal. Once a person dies from heart attack, it’s over. A defibrillator device may be effective only within minutes after death.

[top]     

Proponents of cryonics use many biblical verses to show that God intends human beings to live a lot longer than our about 70—year old limit. They refer to the book of Genesis that says that Adam, Methuselah, and Noah all lived for more than 900 years. They also wonder why God wouldn’t agree with medicine if it allows us to live thousands of years in a condition of youth and health. Many people regard suicide as a sin—which the Bible agrees with, but they fail to acknowledge that not taking advantages of medicines (or prohibiting their development) might be a sin as well (Best, 1990). However, proponents of cryonics fail to acknowledge that a Christian may not oppose a medical procedure that enhances life while the person is still alive. But a Christian will never agree with a medical procedure that is an attempt at resurrection. The Bible is clear concerning death and life. Once a person is dead, then life is over. Any attempt to get a person back to life after death is surely an attempt to counteract God’s plan.

[top]     

Many cryonics proponents argue that legal death and its aftermath are indeed a form of euthanasia in which sick people are abandoned and thrown away. The fact that cryonics is aiming at assuring longer and healthier life, it does not mean that people will become immortal. They argue that despite the amazing technology in the industrialized countries, people still die and no one ever worries about overpopulation. It is also argued on the Alcor’s website 2006 that although people will attempt “to modify their bodies in order to become stronger and more resistant to injury, they will still be vulnerable to accidents, violence, and probably other problems we haven’t encountered yet or even imagined.” On the same website, they also state that “the human body is a physical object, and physical object can always be destroyed. Medicine can protect life, and future medicine can will offer better protection, but medicine alone cannot produce immortality” (Alcor, 2006). A closer analysis clearly shows that cryonics may overpopulate the earth if it would ever work. As it can be seen, a lot more people die from natural death than from an accident, war, natural disaster, or a disease. People become old and then die. This happens a lot more frequent than anything else. If this is eliminated, then of course there will be a lot more people living; and as a result, the earth will overpopulate.

[top] 

VII. Conclusion
Cryonics represents an unproven medical technology that aims at saving lives. Cryonics holds the view that if current medical technology fails to keep one alive, one can choose to be preserved in liquid nitrogen in the hope that a future technology, mainly based on mature nanotechnology, should be able to reverse any cryopreservation injury and restore one back to good health. Cryonics is not favorably viewed by many because it’s still an unproven technology; but its proponents make use of scientific arguments for believing that such technology will possibly be available in the future. Cryonicists argue that it’s not ethical to assume that cryonics will never work, because many things in the past have been considered impossible to happen (such as the flying of an airplane), and yet they become possible due the exceedingly increase knowledge of the scientific community. However, it should be noted that everyone has the right to believe in whatever he or she chooses to believe in. The Christian faith does not allow many beliefs, and therefore a Christian has the right to view cryonics as a “will-never-work” thing. Cryonics denies that they make claims that are contradictory to the bible (such as claiming the potential of having the power to resurrect), but rather it considered itself as a medical technology just like medicine. By denying they make such a claim, they prove themselves that they do not know the real definition of the word resurrection.

[top]    

Bibliography

Alcor Life Extension Foundation (2006). Cryonics at Alcor. Retrieved on October 28, 2006 from http://www.alcor.org/index.html

Badger, W. Scott (1998). An explanatory survey examining the familiarity with and attitudes toward cryonics preservation. Retrieved on October 28, 2006 fromhttp://transhumanist.com/volume3/badger.htm

Cross, Christopher (1983). Sailing. Retrieved on November 01, 2006 from www.cryonet.org

Cryonics (2006). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on November 13, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cryonics&oldid=86185271

Cryonics Institute (2002). About Cryonics. Retrieved on Octover 29, 2006 from http://www.cryonics.org/

Drexler, K. Eric (1986). Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology. Anchor Books.

[top]