Cryonics.Info
Definitive Information on Cryonics

About

Books and Bibliography

Cryonics Info.

Stem-Cell Research

Rejuvenation

Growth of Cryonics

Experimental Results

Survey Results

Members Join Now Login

Bodily Preservation

But what are the options for people today who agree that youthful longevity is a good thing? There is as yet no accurate science of rejuvenation, and death is a very real threat in a world limited by terrible inequalities and belligerent resistance to many progressive ideas. However, considering the ambiguities regarding the understanding of medical death, how we deal with the dying requires re-examination. Because death is usually a process of decay, there is an alternative treatment for patients in extremis that is not currently utilized by the majority of physicians, though it receives little attention because it is not standard practice. Yet, the body in its entirety can be preserved when it can no longer live, so that in the future advanced medical technology might revive the patient.

There are various modern medical procedures based on this idea and they are collectively known as cryonics, a word coined from the Greek word "cryos", meaning "cold". The basic idea was first widely publicized by Professor Robert Ettinger in his 1964 book, The Prospect of Immortality. Cryonics medical procedures are applied as soon as possible after the time that legal death has been officially declared. This initially involves cooling a person who has been declared dead and replacing their bodily fluids with a preservative cryoprotective chemical solution. The patient is then stored and maintained at low temperatures, typically through immersion in liquid nitrogen (ˆ196°C). More recent developments in cryonics procedures employ vitrification methods which, though also using low temperatures, avoid many of the damages which are caused through freezing. In a vitrified state, tissues are converted into glass-like solids. Using this method, ice-crystals do not form in the water of the body and consequently, damage to the cellular structure of the tissues and organs is greatly reduced. Storage temperatures for this form of preservation may be somewhat higher, around ˆ130°C.

Forwards to The Scientific Basis

Back to Rejuvenation