CRYONICS UK

Cryonics Article   

The prospect of coming back to life after death is an idea that has intrigued mankind since time began. The notion can be traced back to early civilisation, most notably the era of Ancient Egypt, with their process of embalming and is a subject that evokes innate human instincts as to both our natural fear of death and the opportunities of immortality. But whilst the idea has been considered as pure science fiction up to now, it is increasingly becoming more recognised as a more feasible possibility, with companies in America providing a service that hopes to one day fulfil the prospect of resurrection in the foreseeable future. Indeed, rather than life being priceless, the chance of it being extended can be bought for as little as $28,000 dollars through the Cryonics Institute, or slightly more with the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, the two leading American-based corporations in the business of life extension.

 The service they provide is defined by the term cryonics, whereby the whole human body is frozen after death in the hope that one day technology will have sufficiently advanced to both cure and revive the patient from what they died and thus return them to original health, vitality and life. The idea was first proposed by Robert Ettinger and published in his book ‘The Prospect of Immortality’ in 1964, which helped create this alternative outlook towards death and is a process involving different phases, the most significant being freezing the body once an individual is legally declared dead. At present, this procedure involves an initial cool-down of a patient through the use of an anticoagulant, which in turn is followed by both the removal and replacement of blood with a type of anti-freeze substance, known as a cryo-protectant. Following subsequent cooling, the patient is then ready for immersion in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of -196 degrees, which as a result holds them in their current state technically referred to as ‘cryonic suspension’. But whilst believers see this as the best chance for resurrection, many scientists remain deeply sceptical towards this practice for the simple reason that present science cannot guarantee the revival of ‘dead’ human bodies and, as so far, no-one has successfully been resuscitated either.

 However, what the cryonics argument proposes is that if a patient can be cryogenically frozen as close enough to being declared ‘legally’ dead as possible (i.e. before the decay of essential body parts such as the brain) then it should at least be achievable to restore the person back to life, but only when technology sufficiently develops in the future. This is the line of argument that Hugh Hixon, Chief Science and Technical Operator at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona, America, agrees with, saying, “It’s not that it will work, but that it might work and it is worth trying. Even if we cannot do it with the technology we have now, the risk is worth taking. The other alternative is to be dead and that is not particularly interesting. In simple terms, it’s a bet but the pay off could be enormous”.

 And it is this ‘gamble’, as he states, which is what people around the world are choosing to spend their money on, along with their aspirations, for the faintest possibility of living again. At present worldwide statistics reveal that Alcor has 580 active suspension members who are signed up for the service, with 49 patients actually suspended, whilst membership for the Cryonics Institute is approaching the mid-400’s, with 41 of those currently in whole body suspension, successfully proving that people are indeed willing to take this calculated risk. Hugh Hixon believes that within the next 20 years, the intake of members at Alcor should also grow progressively, commenting, “If you look on a linear basis, I think in the next 20 years we should maybe have 2,500 members. I don’t think it would be much less than that but it could be a lot more, it really depends on public perception”. But while these companies are currently based solely in America, this has not deterred people from outside their borders from signing up to be suspended.

 One such person already committed to the procedure is Chrissie De Rivaz, Chairperson of Cryonics Europe, which is a voluntary group based in the south of England set up to both advise and assist individuals who are signed up for the service outside the United States. In return for a monthly subscription they offer a remote standby service with a mobile perfusion unit that acts as temporary storage for deceased members before they arrive in America, ready for long-term care.

 Her personal reasons for committing to this idea stem from both a belief in the subject, that one day it will work, and also because it offers a better alternative to the more conventional methods of disposing of a human corpse. “It is something that I have been aware of for many years and has slightly intrigued me as a possibility”, says Chrissie. “I think it is an awful lot better than either being buried in the ground to rot or being sent up the flue, which is the choice we have otherwise, and I do not particularly like the thought of either. This idea means there is a very faint chance of coming back, even if it is not yet proven, but I am becoming more and more convinced it is going to happen one day because there is no time limit as to how long we have to wait”.

 This confidence is supported by fellow group member and cryonic enthusiast Alan Sinclair, 64, from Peacehaven in East Sussex. He initially signed up to be suspended in 1988 and helped in establishing the remote stand-by team for Cryonics Europe. The optimism he conveys with the idea working is based around the potential advances he believes science will make in the future, but also the opportunities returning to the world would bring. “I enjoy life, think it is too short and believe it would be nice to extend it. Most people would say it is impossible at the moment and that is quite true, it is. We are relying on future technology”, says Alan. “But I see it as an ambulance to get us to the future, and hopefully as technology develops, they may be able to repair us from the damage that is done by freezing, as well as the ageing process and what killed us”. Indeed, the main dilemma Alan Sinclair has with the subject is not that it will work, but why more people do not consider it as a realistic option when they die. “I find it extraordinary that people say when you’ve had your life span its nice to die. I don’t think it is nice to die. We know if we are buried or cremated there is no way back and although this is still an experimental thing, it is certainly worth the odds”.

 But how is it that people become interested in cryonics? Where do prospective patients first learn about it or how do they even begin to consider it as a plausible alternative to death, especially if science cannot substantiate any positive claims made towards the subject at present. For Mark Walker, Secretary and Team Leader of Suspensions at Cryonics Europe, the answer is simple. “I first saw it on a morning television programme. The presenter said we are going to meet a family that has signed up to cryonics who are hoping to come back to life in the future. It immediately got my attention and that was when I got hooked on the idea”. He views the idea as a far more logical option after death, especially in treating his body, and believes the greatly improved media coverage will only help in attracting more people to the topic, as it did him, and also in enhancing the overall public perception of cryonics. “It still surprises me how few people know about it, but it is getting better and better all the time. I have certainly noticed changes since I have been involved, particularly with increased media coverage”, says Mark. “It has even been a question on ‘The Weakest link', so it seems to be filtering its way through slowly”. Indeed, supporting this opinion further, Chrissie De Rivaz draws parallels with this improvement in conjunction with the success of the Internet, because of the convenience it offers users who want to learn more about topics such as cryonics both quickly and easily. “Although most people still think it is science fiction, so many more people understand a little bit about the process. The Internet has made a vast difference to cryonics as people have discovered that they can access such information”.

 Perhaps the most fascinating dimension to the entire notion of cryonics is what people actually look forward to were it ever to work - that is the hopes and dreams patients place in this scheme if or when it ever could happen. For most, it is simply the curiosity of the unknown and the opportunity to experience another existence in the future that otherwise would be out of reach. “Over the last few years technology has progressed, especially with the things that are coming out now”, says Mark Walker, “So in a few hundred years I think it will be totally mind-blowing being able to jump centuries into the future and see what sort of technology has developed”. Mark is also intrigued by the possibilities that life could offer in another era, and for instance, whether the human species still thrives on this planet. “I guess it would be nice just to see where we are living, or how we are living, how far have we got with space travel and whether we have got to the point of finding another planet that is expansive”. The same applies to Alan Sinclair, who also hopes to experience the things he has been unable to fulfil in this lifetime. “It sounds very ageist, but when I was young there were no computers about, television was in its infancy, cars went at 12 mph (no not quite!)”. “But everything has been developed in the last few years and I think technology will greatly improve, along with health and lifestyle, and it will be nice to see it”. And for Chrissie De Rivaz, just the thought of future technology in itself is enough to captivate her into the possibilities of cryonics, saying, “All the new technology that comes along and makes my life easier is absolutely fascinating, whilst the thought of future entertainment is quite fascinating too”.

 Nevertheless, for all the believers, dreamers and companies who have a genuine faith in the procedure of cryonics actually working someday, there are the sceptics who categorically refute the claim that the process could ever possibly happen, either now or in the future. One such person is Professor David Pegg, head of the Medical Cryobiology Unit at York University. His group is concerned with the use of low temperatures to preserve living cells and tissues, predominately for medical use, either in laboratories or in actual treatment of patients. He believes that the whole basis cryonics is built upon is completely flawed because it fails on several critical counts. “Normally freezing destroys living organisms, including people. There are ways of doing it with single cells, but this is a very special process. It is not just freezing, there have to be other things done to make it possible to get living cells to survive”, says Professor Pegg. “This work is done with fully functional cells that are alive and undamaged, whereas what the cryonics people are doing is taking patients who have died of something incurable by definition and superimposing upon that the damage which occurs when you freeze things such things”. Therefore, he argues that cryonic companies have three stages that must be overcome before the idea can ever be taken seriously. “Firstly, they have got to bring back the dead, cure whatever it was they died from and then have some way of getting around or circumventing the injury which occurs during freezing of complex big systems like whole people. That cannot be done, which they will then respond to by saying but how do you know it will never be done? The answer to that is how do you know that it ever will be done? I do not have a crystal ball and nor do they. What you can firmly say is that there is nothing in current knowledge that indicates how it might be possible and there is no underlying science that says one day it will be possible”.

 Still, Mark Walker counters claims such as these by offering examples of science in history, saying, “So-called experts have been caught out before where they have put their work in writing stating things definitely will not work. In my opinion, these people are setting themselves up for another fall. For example, we had people saying cloning would never happen, now it is very possible and with animals it obviously has been done”. Also supporting this suggestion with another valid example is Chrissie De Rivaz who, whilst believing everyone is entitled to their own opinion, says, “Fifty years ago the idea of a heart transplant was something deemed quite grotesque, whereas now it is commonplace, meaning the timescale on subjects such as cryonics is virtually impossible to tell”.

 But Professor David Pegg weighs into the debate further with his personal scepticism by labelling the freezing of people or cryonics as the modern-day equivalent to that of embalming used during Ancient Egypt. “If it was possible to restore mummies back to life, do you think anybody would restore all of the mummies that exist to life? It would introduce a whole new population of people with a somewhat unusual history into an already overcrowded planet. Would you do it? If large numbers of people are being frozen away would anybody ever resurrect them all. Even if it were possible, would they do it? I think it is very questionable whether people would do it”. Whilst these doubts by sceptics remain, so, it seems, will the uncertainty of cryonics in general.

 For all this scientific cynicism, it is somewhat surprising that the nature of cryonics does not appear to explicitly infringe upon any religious boundaries or beliefs that are currently being practised today. The normal misconception with the topic is people confuse cryonic suspension as an attempt to raise the dead, whereas the Cryonics Institute argues a patient is no more (or less) dead than when their heart has stopped. They believe that the only difference between both current science and their ideas is the time period in which doctors consider a person’s state to be reversible, with some doctors deeming this to be only several minutes after death, but others much longer, hence cryonics. Chrissie De Rivaz suggests that the suspension process should not necessarily conflict with religion, saying, “One could say that if you believe that the created gift that God gave to humanity is life and the will to think, then really we are trying to preserve that”. Furthermore, Hugh Hixon sees cryonics as a more economical way of attempting to extend life than in comparison to when you are actually alive. “In America, on average, approximately half of all lifetime medical expenses are incurred in the last two years of life, so we know that people will expend a great deal of effort no matter what their religion, in order to extend their life”, says Hugh. “Clearly going to hospital to extend your life for a few years is not an issue, so coming to us to try and extend your life should not necessarily be a contradiction”.

But Reverend Chris Chivers of Westminster Abbey has trouble comprehending the whole practice. He prefers to advocate the Christian Aid slogan of life before death and believes it better to channel all energies into making things better within your initial lifetime. “I don’t think the Church of England would recommend it, fundamentally because it is failing to recognise the nature of human life, of which death is a part”. Indeed, he can only really see the negative psychological effects this process could potentially have on both the friends and family of patients. “Thankfully I have not had too many people that close to me die, but of the ones who have the funeral has actually been very important, because it meant a closure. I think that this would be harder to achieve psychologically if you knew that round the corner granny was in the freezer”. On a personal basis, he also goes as far as to suggest that the entire proposal of cryonics only succeeds because it manages to tap into the minds of westerners and western society. “I spent three years working in Cape Town and open coffins are just standard at a funeral. People face the reality of a corpse in a way in which we do not. We are a bit inured from that in the Western tradition, which I why I suppose cryonics is much more a western thing because we spend all our time fighting the reality of death”. But whilst the Church of England, according to Reverend Chris Chivers, would not recommend the idea of cryonics, it would also be unlikely to denounce it either. “I do not think the church could bless it. Whether you actually have to go on to condemn it is a different thing altogether, but I feel people who do it are misguided”.

 However, it is clear to see how people get captivated into the possibilities that companies like Alcor and the Cryonics Institute propose to be ‘doable’ within the foreseeable future. Whilst no-one can say for sure that it will work, then again no-one can definitely that it never will either (and vice versa). What is for sure is that science continues to advance all the time, meaning the likelihood that perhaps someday this could happen all the more likely. “If you take out a life insurance policy when you are young enough, you are looking at the price of a packet of cigarettes or a couple of pints of larger a week”, says Chrissie De Rivaz, highlighting the potential cost-effectiveness of cryonics. But encapsulating the pro-cryonic opinion succinctly is Hugh Hixon at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation… “My point of view is that if it does work, we are geniuses. If it does not work we were fools, but we will be dead, so do not much care what other people think”. Indeed, unless anyone reading this article signs up to be suspended, we will probably never learn the answer to such an opinion.