This is partially what I've been working on for the past two days..
I. Brief Overview
About
two hundred years ago, modern science of that time thought the instant we
stopped breathing, we were dead. The Society
for Recovery of Drowned Persons helped to change that perception by spreading
awareness of a crude form of cardiopulmonary resuscitation ("CPR")[i]. Modern science is well aware that just
because someone stops breathing does not necessarily mean a person is
dead.
Cryonics,
the low temperature preservation of humans, operates on the principle that
today's modern science is incorrect in its assumption of death. For someone to be declared legally dead
depends on the medical professional, but an often used guideline is the irreversible
cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions[ii]. When someone is declared dead, their
condition is considered irreversibly permanent.
Even though legally dead, most cells inside a person's body can still be
alive immediately after being declared dead[iii]. It can take hours after being declared dead before
all of the cells in a person's body truly die.
The cryonics industry operates on the assumption that if a body can be
preserved immediately after it's legally declared dead, some day in the future,
the person can be revived because future medical science will define death at a
much later stage. This is similar to today's
modern definition of death being at a much later stage than two hundred years
ago. It's hoped that the medical
technology of the future will advance to a stage where people can be revived
from a cryogenically frozen state and can be cured from their original cause of
death. Patients who choose to have their
body cryonically frozen are wagering that any remote possibility of being
revived in the future outweighs the costs of being cryopreserved.
The
method currently used to preserve a body involves replacing the blood with a
preservation solution and then the freezing the body and brain with liquid nitrogen[iv]. If frozen in this manner, the body and brain
will suffer the least form of ice crystal damage and can be preserved for a
long period.
The
costs for cryonic preservation can be very expensive. The Alcor foundation charges $80,000 to $150,000[v]. The Cryonics Institute charges $28,000 to
$100,000[vi]. Because of the high costs, an insurance
policy can be bought for the procedure at a cost of less than $100 a
month. Because of the remote possibility
of being revived in the future, patients set up trust funds in jurisdictions without
Rules Against Perpetuities[vii]. The funds are to be returned to an individual
if they're revived. Through the magic of
compounding and assuming market returns will continue in the future, the revived
individuals should have a small fortune waiting for them in the future.
Currently,
there are no methods of resuscitating and reviving cryonically preserved
bodies. There are no scientific
procedures that can prove the success of cryonics. Patients who choose to be cyropreserved are hopeful
that future technologies to revive them might include computer mind uploading
or tissue regeneration through molecular nanotechnology[viii].
[i] Baker, A. B. "Artificial respiration, the history of
an idea." Medical History. 1 Oct 1971; 15(4): 336-351.
[ii] Capron, A. M. "Brain Death-Well Settled yet Still
Unresolved." The New England Journal
of Medicine. 2001; 344 (16): 1244-1246.
[iii] Kerridge, I. H., P.
Saul, M. Lowe, J. McPhee, and D. Williams. "Death, dying and donation:
organ transplantation and the diagnosis of death." Journal of Medical
Ethics. 2002; 28(2): 89-94.
[iv] Best, Ben. "The Cryonics Institute's 73nd Patient." The Cryonics Institute. 1 May 2009.
<http://www.cryonics.org/reports/CI73.html>.
[v] "Alcor: FAQ." Cryonics: Alcor Life Extension
Foundation. 1 May 2009 <http://www.alcor.org/FAQs/faq01.html#cost>.
[vi] "Cryonics: A Basic
Introduction." The Cryonics Institute. 1 May 2009
<http://cryonics.org/prod.html>.
[vii] "Funding Methods for Cryopreservation at
Alcor." Cryonics: Alcor Life Extension Foundation. 1 May 2009
<http://www.alcor.org/BecomeMember/sdfunding.htm>.
[viii] "Alcor: FAQ." Cryonics:
Alcor Life Extension Foundation. 1 May 2009
<http://www.alcor.org/FAQs/index.html>.
I'll be in Chicago for the weekend for a medical school graduation. The best investment in life is to marry a doctor.
