Cryonics- Quick Freezing the Dead!

The human quest for immortality, an overarching theme of early science and alchemy, remains the goal for many.  However now, instead of seeking to cheat death through magic, we have turned to medicine and science in search of new ways avoid truly dying.    Today, immortality seems closer than ever before, with the cryonics movement, or “quick-freezing” the dead before cellular death can occur.  The main idea behind cryonics is that a person’s identity (which includes their memories and personality) is stored in cells within the brain that can survive, even without continuous brain activity, for long periods of time if frozen at cold enough temperatures.   The idea is that people who of diseases incurable today, can one day be unfrozen and revived when a cure has been discovered.

The process of cryonics begins when the patient’s heart stops beating, when he or she is pronounced “legally dead.”  However, even after the heart stops, some cellular activity remains in the brain; the body must be frozen before the brain’s cells completely “die.”  According to the Cryonics Institute it would theoretically be best to begin the freezing process before the patient actually dies, to avoid the “physical damages resulting from death.”  Presently, this is illegal so cryonics practitioners have to make due with freezing the recently dead. 

The freezing begins when the dead reaches the cryonics facility.  First, the water in the patient’s body is replaced with cryoprotectant to avoid cells freezing, expanding and therefore ‘exploding.’  Next the body is placed in a vat of dry ice and cooled to temperatures below -130 C.  Finally, the patient is suspended in metal container of liquid nitrogen, at about -200 C.  They are now destined to lie a state of “suspended animation” or cryonic suspension for eternity, or until scientists discover a way to revive the frozen humans.

If the possibility of immortality is tempting, you too can be frozen upon death.  Non-profits, like the previously-mentioned Cryonics Institute or the euphemistic Alcor Life Extension Foundation, are ready to put you on the list to be flash-frozen and preserved upon death, for a small fee, upwards of $30,000.  Proponents will argue that thirty thousand dollars is a small price to pay for immortality, even though no human has been revived from cryonic suspension to date.

Believe what you will, but to me, cryonics is just the modern form of alchemy.  But today, instead of drinking potions laced with mercury or performing incantations, adherents are buying expensive memberships to cryonics organizations and planning their own freezing years in advance, hoping to one day be revived.  It’s just another manifestation of our fear of our own mortality.  Many believe that this immortality will one day become a reality, but right now, it’s only a hope.  Waiting for science to make you immortal is like waiting for the sorcerer to make a elixir of life,  it’s just another instance of people looking for a new way to avoid the inevitable and cheat death.