7 Responses to “Do you believe in preserving bodies with cryogenics?”

1. Larry V on December 25th, 2008 10:29 pm

   Do you really mean “do you believe that bodies preserved with cryogenics will ever be defrosted”?

   Or do you mean “should it be legal to freeze, then later thaw out, people”?

   Or, do you mean “are there REALLY people being frozen”?

   I don’t know that I actually believe people are being frozen. From what I’ve read, the technology isn’t available now to thaw out someone frozen so that they come “back to life” – the hope is that in the future the thawing process will be perfected.

   As for “should it be legal”, good question. My first response was going to be “yes”. But then, think about it. Right now, it is as close to legalized suicide as we have… because there is no way to thaw people out right now and no guarantee that, even if a thawing process is eventually perfected, it would work with the people being frozen now. So the odds are pretty small.

   And what legal status does one of these people have? Are they declared legally dead, as far as their estates, bank accounts, taxes, etc. are concerned? If so, then what status would they have if they were ever thawed out? If not, then what happens when their money runs out of their estate and it can’t cover their taxes,bills, etc.?

2. falconjayhawk on December 28th, 2008 5:55 pm

   People will pay for anything, however scientists can reanimate living organisms from a deep freeze, they just can’t yet figure how to do it with such a complex animal. I guess people just want to hope that they will figure it out eventually.

3. rrai on December 30th, 2008 2:39 pm

   Preserving bodies with cryogenics does actually work and has been done before. Howver, it only preserves the body, not hte person’s actual life. They havent been able to keep someone alive in such a low teemperature, but your body cells don’t decay, which preserves your body forever if ice is frequently resupplied

4. Joe on December 31st, 2008 12:33 am

   As we stand now , Cryonic Technology cannot “bring someone back”.

   But ,as someone else has stated , about it being legalized suicide , it is not.
   You have to be confirmed dead to be Put into a Cryo Tube.
   So , if life isn’t good , you can’t say “chuck me in a tube”.

   Also , this is great for cancer patients , or any other disease. (Or , for that matter , people that want to live a while).

   As We stand , the medical field of technology is growing every month.

   People Have Printed Layers of cells on each other , and they are actually alive. This is the future of “printing” a new organ.

   Nano Technology is coming along too , in the Medical Field , and even with Computer Hard Disks.

   Figure this. A family Member dies of cancer. They get “frozen”. A year later they find a cure for that type of cancer. Then , they find a way to bring the person back.

   Wouldn’t that truly be great…?

   My 2 Cents.

   -Joe

5. faesson@sbcglobal.net on January 3rd, 2009 11:23 am

   Ancient Egyptians began mummifying their dead back about 3300 BC. They believed that a soul can return to the body after death and the better preserved it is, the less likely it will be a bumpy ride back. To them, this was cutting edge science.

   Who was it that said “You aren’t truly dead until no one living remembers you.”? [I am going with Stephen King on that one, cause he is trying to sell a book and more power to him.]

   Preservation of the dead is a physical ramification of the hope for eternal life, or at least life continuing after death.

   Neanderthals buried their dead, sometimes with flowers and presents of meat and tools. Was this a tribute to their loved ones lives? Or was it a hope that someday they will find their way back and not show up empty handed?

6. markedchicken on January 6th, 2009 9:40 am

   This is assuming you are considering the feasibility of human life preservation by freezing.

   No. Have you ever tried putting water in a glass, and placing it in the freezer? What usually happens is, the water expands and breaks the glass. In molecular terms, the water arranges itself into a structure that takes up more volume than the liquid.

   This means that if you take the water in your cells and freeze it, then your cells would rupture in the process. This means that you die if you are frozen – unless a way is found to keep the water from freezing without arranging itself.

   You can preserve the body (keep it from decaying), but not the life.

   What is life? Maybe someone else can post this question.
   Trial answer: Life is the ability to counter the second law of thermodynamics.

7. Kes on January 6th, 2009 7:38 pm

   Evidently people are free to be preserved cryogenically and companies who charge to do so are limited only in what they guarantee. Some believe that if they are properly preserved, they may be thawed much later perhaps when a cure for their terminal illness has been discovered. However, it is not legal to cause death to enhance cryogenic procedures. Irreversible brain damage can occur within about 5 minutes if the brain is deprived of oxygen and it has been written that the oxygen in the brain must be rapidly replaced with an inert gas (such as xenon) to avoid damage. Because it is not legal to experiment with healthy people, it can not be known how successful cryogenic procedures will be, even if timing is optimum. Also, our memories (everything we know) reside in electron clouds within brain cells and we must reproduce them every second of our lives (unlike magnetic tape) and it can not be known whether people will ‘awake’ with a blank slate. Tests with animals have been successful (reanimation after cryogenic procedures) but their lack of a neocortex (higher brain function) must render results inconclusive for humans. Cryogenic procedures likely preserve DNA that in the future might be used to ‘replicate’ a particular human, but without the original memories and even personality. Don’t try it at home?

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