Cryonics - the Frozen People

The Frozen People

Suzie Q, a twenty-five year old woman, is dying of AIDS. When she learned this, she heard about something called cryonic suspension. A cryonist at the hospital where she gets treatment told her how cryonics freezes people when they are pronounced dead. When the cure for AIDS is developed, she would then be revived and able to start a new life. Suzie Q decided to participate in cryonic suspension and spent her life savings to pay for the freezing process. Five years later, Suzie Q died. The cryonics team flew her to an Alcor Life Extension Foundation where she was frozen. Suzie Q's family did not know about her plans and were extremely upset because they felt it was impossible to conduct a proper funeral without a body to bury.

Cryonics what a funny word yet the meaning of this funny word is extremely serious. In Newsday Sidney C. Schaer a news writer wrote this, "THE WORD 'cryonics'- the practice of freezing a dead body in hopes of someday reviving it- didn't enter the dictionary until 1967. But 200 years earlier, Ben Franklin was dreaming of a frozen ride to immortality" (Schaer). Cryonic suspension requires that the body's temperature be lowered to -196 degrees Celsius or the same as liquid nitrogen. Then the body or head is stored in a dewar, which is like a thermos, and put into cold storage. "This flask is continuously being filled with liquid nitrogen because the nitrogen is evaporating continuously to keep the temperature low" (Cryonic). The cryonic medical team will only reanimate the patients when the cure for what killed the patient is found. Although cryonics is a medical science break-though, it should be outlawed in the United States for several reasons. Cryonic suspension could cause over population and wasted money, cell damage and the patients could possibly be used as guinea pigs, and how will they adapt to the future?

Obviously, people are interested in cryonics because it will prolong their life. In the near future, there will be cures for diseases such as AIDS and cancer. Cryonics would be able to give a frozen person with such diseases a chance to be eventually cured. Cryonics would prolong life not only to the age of eighty, but possibly to about one hundred and twenty. "Imagine the chance of being reunited with the people you care about, in the future of exciting possibilities" (What). A life in the future may hold exciting new developments; however, the science of cryonics has not been successfully proven to be effective. "Today, a tiny group of biologists is still trying to bring cryonics 'to its perfection.' A far larger group of debunkers; however, says cryonics is little more than bogus science, its promise, they say, will never be fulfilled." (Schaer). Therefore, today's society should not be able to invest in and/or participate in cryonic suspension until it has been proven to be successful and without side effects.

The first reason cryonic suspension should not be used is because of the overpopulation it will cause if and when the patients of Alcor are all revived. Cryonics has been in place since the 1960's, and there are still no successful reanimation plans to prove it will work. Thus, suspended people will probably be frozen for at least one hundred to two hundred years. Many of the patients could be revived at or around the same time. The patients so far are all adults, and therefore, will all move into the work force and the community together. By the time reanimation occurs, there could be thousands of patients in suspension. The majority of cryonicly suspended patients will be left with no immediate family or friends, and would have no place to live. Not to mention that isolation could cause problems of homelessness and unemployment. Everybody has seen the zillions of advertisements for starving children and adults. This problem has no current solution, and as a result the homelessness and unemployment increase every year. The Alcor patients could also be extremely confused and probably a bit scared. Today's society should not be allowed to participate in cryonics until these problems are realized and solutions are considered.

In addition to the overpopulation it will cause, cryonic suspension should not be allowed because the amount of money required to keep the program going when cryonicists are not even sure their ideas will work. The money comes from the patient's own bank account and insurance policies. Tomas Kellner states that, "...suspension providers, such as Alcor require clients to designate the provider as the policy's irrevocable beneficiary to cover all freezing costs. That money cannot be touched by family who feels the deceased's investment is misguided" (Forbes). If in the event cryonic suspension does not work will the patient be finally laid to rest, one hundred to two hundred years later, and will the money in the patient's account go to the foundation that cryonically suspended him or her? In National Review a writer states that, "There are annual dues to pay and when the, ahem, moment comes, a neurosuspension will set you back $50,000; 'whole body' will cost $120,000" (Stuttaford 2). These prices do not include reanimation costs. The fact that cryonicist are not completely sure the process is going to work should be reason enough not to allow this kind of procedure.

Not even an animal has successfully been brought back from suspension to live longer than a few months. Cells and organs may be damaged beyond repair. The skeletal system could be fractured and splintered during the freezing process due to dehydration. When a cell is frozen the delicate structure of it is disrupted. Imagine freezing Jell-O and then thawing it out, it becomes runny and non-edible. Now imagine trying to repair the structure of the eye. Inside the globe of the eye is a substance similar to Jell-O. During the freezing process the cells dehydrate, and then crystallize. "Mike Darwin of Alcor noticed several years ago... that every organ of their [suspended patients] bodies suffers cracking from thermal stress during freezing. In particular, the spinal cords suffered several fractures. Thus, whole bodies were not quite as 'whole' as most people presumed" (FAQ 5). The damage caused to the cells could be far too extensive to even attempt reanimation. "The biggest problem is that water seeps out of cells, freezes, and thus expands and forms crystals which can puncture the cells" (Genetic). The scientists/cryonicists will have to test this on a human some day. The fact cryonics has not been proven yet is frightening. They could try to use one of the patients as a guinea pig or lab rat for use in experiments that may never work. "As one leaflet is careful to say,