Cryopreservation

In 1773, Benjamin Franklin one of the founding fathers of the United States of America commented with regret that he lived "in a century too little advanced, and too near the infancy of science" that he could not be preserved to then be revived to fulfil his "very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence".

It is a dream of most of us to be able to live forever or at least enjoy what may be on offer in one or two hundred year's time and to do so in a reasonably healthy state. Since the late 1960s, one particular branch of science has gradually developed to meet our demands to achieve this dream.

Cryonics is the practice of using extreme cold to preserve the life of a person who can no longer be supported by ordinary medicine. With the correct measures in place, human tissue can be cooled or vitrified to a tempeature of below -120 degrees without freezing and therefore without the tissue damage resultant from the generation of ice crystals.

In reality, cryonics is not the preservation of the dead but the physiological stasis of someone who can no longer be kept alive. Cryonics is put to work within a window of opportunity - after certified death but not the degeneration of the brain. 100 years ago, when someone's heart stopped beating they were pronounced dead; today we are more aware of the neurological implications of death.

It is known that after at least five minutes of physiological death the neurology of a person remains valid. It is at this juncture between body and brain death that cryonics get to work. With measures in place to protect the brain from lack of oxygen, rapid cooling begins. It is believed that with the contemporary procedures in place today the 'physical basis of the human mind' can be stabilized for an unlimited period of time.

Several people are preserved in this way and in the USA there are already a handful of companies that offer this service. In such efforts either the brain within the head or entire body may undergo the above process. For the former 'neuropatients' the cost is around $80,000 or latter 'wholebody', $200,000.

Proponents of cryonics claim that cryopreservation, particularly vitrification of the brain, may be sufficient to preserve people so that they could be revived and made whole by vastly advanced future technology. Those against the process claim a conflict with religion and an indulgence of the rich. 

Despite the debates, the already huge advances in nanotechnology may pave the way for successful re-animation of those already under cryogenic storage - to share Franklin's dream rather than his regret.