cryonics

Cryonicists argue that as long as brain structure remains intact, there is no fundamental barrier, given our current understanding of physics, to recovering its information content. Cryonics proponents go further than the mainstream consensus in saying that the brain does not have to be continuously active to survive or retain memory. Cryonicists controversially say that a human can survive even within an inactive, badly damaged brain, as long as the original encoding of memory and personality can be adequately inferred and reconstituted from what remains.{{cite journal|author=Doyle, DJ|date=2012|title=Cryonic Life Extension: Scientific Possibility or Stupid Pipe Dream?|journal=Ethics in Biology, Engineering and Medicine|volume=3|issue=1–3|pages=9–28|doi=10.1615/EthicsBiologyEngMed.2013006985}}

Cryonics uses temperatures below −130 °C, called cryopreservation, in an attempt to preserve enough brain information to permit the revival of the cryopreserved person. Cryopreservation is accomplished by freezing with or without cryoprotectant to reduce ice damage, or by vitrification to avoid ice damage. Even using the best methods, cryopreservation of whole bodies or brains is very damaging and irreversible with current technology.

Cryonicists call the human remains packed into low-temperature vats "patients".{{cite journal | journal=Smithsonian Magazine| vauthors=Germain J | title=200 Frozen Heads and Bodies Await Revival at This Arizona Cryonics Facility | date=21 October 2022 | url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/200-frozen-heads-and-bodies-await-revival-at-this-arizona-cryonics-facility-180980981/ }} They hope that some kind of presently nonexistent nanotechnology will be able to bring the dead back to life and treat the diseases that killed them.{{cite journal |last1=Crippen |first1=DW |last2=Whetstine |first2=L |title=Ethics review: Dark angels – the problem of death in intensive care |journal=Critical Care |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=202 |year=2007 | pmid=17254317 |pmc=2151911 |doi=10.1186/cc5138 |doi-access=free}} Mind uploading has also been proposed.{{cite news|title=Frozen in time: Oregon firm preserves bodies, brains in hopes that science catches up |url=http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/293801-170586-frozen-in-time-oregon-firm-preserves-bodies-brains-in-hopes-that-science-catches-up|access-date=February 21, 2016|work=Portland Tribune|date=18 February 2016|archive-date=July 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711171113/http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/293801-170586-frozen-in-time-oregon-firm-preserves-bodies-brains-in-hopes-that-science-catches-up|url-status=live}}

Cryonics is expensive. {{asof|2018}}, the cost of preparing and storing corpses using cryonics ranged from US$28,000 to $200,000.{{cite web |publisher=Human Tissue Authority |title=Things to consider when making your decision on cryonics |url=https://www.hta.gov.uk/things-consider-when-making-your-decision-cryonics |date=26 September 2018 |access-date=3 October 2019 |archive-date=30 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930062932/https://www.hta.gov.uk/things-consider-when-making-your-decision-cryonics |url-status=live}}

At high concentrations, cryoprotectants can stop ice formation completely. Cooling and solidification without crystal formation is called vitrification.{{cite journal|vauthors=Fahy GM, MacFarlane DR, Angell CA, Meryman HT|date=August 1984|title=Vitrification as an approach to cryopreservation|journal=Cryobiology|volume=21|issue=4|pages=407–26|doi=10.1016/0011-2240(84)90079-8|pmid=6467964}} In the late 1990s, cryobiologists Gregory Fahy and Brian Wowk developed the first cryoprotectant solutions that could vitrify at very slow cooling rates while still allowing whole organ survival, for the purpose of banking transplantable organs.{{cite journal|display-authors=etal|vauthors=Fahy GM, Wowk B, Pagotan R|date=July 2009|title=Physical and biological aspects of renal vitrification|journal=Organogenesis|volume=5|issue=3|pages=167–75|doi=10.4161/org.5.3.9974|pmc=2781097|pmid=20046680}}{{cite journal|display-authors=etal|vauthors=Fahy GM, Wowk B, Wu J|date=April 2004|title=Cryopreservation of organs by vitrification: perspectives and recent advances|journal=Cryobiology|volume=48|issue=2|pages=157–78|doi=10.1016/j.cryobiol.2004.02.002|pmid=15094092}}{{cite journal |last1=Fahy|first1=G|last2=Wowk|first2=B|last3=Wu|first3=J|last4=Phan|first4=J|last5=Rasch|first5=C|last6=Chang|first6=A|last7=Zendejas|first7=E|year=2005|title=Corrigendum to "Cryopreservation of organs by vitrification: perspectives and recent advances" [Cryobiology 48 (2004) 157–178] |journal=Cryobiology |volume=50 |issue=3 |page=344|doi=10.1016/j.cryobiol.2005.03.002 |doi-access=}} This has allowed animal brains to be vitrified, thawed, and examined for ice damage using light and electron microscopy. No ice crystal damage was found;{{cite journal |vauthors=Lemler J, Harris SB, Platt C, Huffman TM|date=June 2004|title=The arrest of biological time as a bridge to engineered negligible senescence |journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences |volume=1019 |issue=1 |pages=559–563 |bibcode=2004NYASA1019..559L |pmid=15247086 |s2cid=27635898 |doi=10.1196/annals.1297.104}} cellular damage was due to dehydration and toxicity of the cryoprotectant solutions.

Costs can include payment for medical personnel to be on call for death, vitrification, transportation in dry ice to a preservation facility, and payment into a trust fund intended to cover indefinite storage in liquid nitrogen and future revival costs.{{cite news|title=Cryonics: the chilling facts|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/cryonics-the-chilling-facts-2326328.html|access-date=21 February 2016|work=The Independent|date=26 July 2011|archive-date=14 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180614171545/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/cryonics-the-chilling-facts-2326328.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|title=A Dying Young Woman's Hope in Cryonics and a Future|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/us/cancer-immortality-cryogenics.html|access-date=21 February 2016|work=The New York Times|date=12 September 2015|archive-date=2 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180802161847/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/us/cancer-immortality-cryogenics.html|url-status=live}} As of 2011, U.S. cryopreservation costs can range from $28,000 to $200,000, and are often financed via life insurance. KrioRus, which stores bodies communally in large dewars, charges $12,000 to $36,000 for the procedure. Some customers opt to have only their brain cryopreserved ("neuropreservation"), rather than their whole body.

As of 2014, about 250 corpses have been cryogenically preserved in the U.S., and around 1,500 people have signed up to have their remains preserved. As of 2016, there are four facilities that retain cryopreserved bodies, three in the U.S. and one in Russia.{{cite news|title='The ultimate lottery ticket:' Inside one of four cryonics facilities in the world|url=http://koin.com/2016/02/17/oregon-cryonics-the-ultimate-lottery-ticket/|access-date=21 February 2016|work=KOIN (CBS Portland)|date=18 February 2016|archive-date=4 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170704073553/http://koin.com/2016/02/17/oregon-cryonics-the-ultimate-lottery-ticket/|url-status=live}}

A more recent development is Tomorrow Biostasis GmbH, a Berlin-based firm offering cryonics and standby and transportation services in Europe. Founded in 2019 by Emil Kendziorra and Fernando Azevedo Pinheiro, it partners with the European Biostasis Foundation in Switzerland for long-term corpse storage. The facility was completed in 2022.{{cite web |title=Tomorrow Biostasis |url=https://www.tomorrow.bio/ |access-date=26 December 2023 |archive-date=15 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231115144732/https://www.tomorrow.bio/ |url-status=live}}{{cite news|title='Want to live longer? This Berlin startup aims to bring you back from the dead|url=https://tech.eu/2023/01/26/tomorrow-biostasis-wants-you-to-live-forever/|access-date=26 December 2023|work=tech.eu|date=26 January 2023|archive-date=11 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230811023629/https://tech.eu/2023/01/26/tomorrow-biostasis-wants-you-to-live-forever/|url-status=live}}

It seems extremely unlikely that any cryonics company could exist long enough to take advantage of the supposed benefits offered; historically, even the most robust corporations have only a one-in-a-thousand chance of lasting 100 years.{{cite journal |journal=Cogent Social Sciences |author=Stodolsky DS |title=The growth and decline of cryonics |doi=10.1080/23311886.2016.1167576 |volume=2 |year=2016 |issue=1 |page=1167576|doi-access=free}} Many cryonics companies have failed; {{asof|2018|lc=yes}}, all but one of the pre-1973 batch had gone out of business, and their stored corpses have been defrosted and disposed of.{{cite web |publisher=Human Tissue Authority |title=The law on cryonics |url=https://www.hta.gov.uk/law-cryonics |date=26 September 2018 |access-date=3 October 2019 |archive-date=30 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930062900/https://www.hta.gov.uk/law-cryonics |url-status=live}}

Medical laboratories have long used cryopreservation to maintain animal cells, human embryos, and even some organized tissues, for periods as long as three decades.{{cite journal|vauthors=Crippen DW, Reis RJ, Risco R, Vita N|date=October 2015|title=The Science Surrounding Cryonics |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2015/10/19/109714/the-science-surrounding-cryonics/|journal=MIT Technology Review}} But recovering large animals and organs from a frozen state is not considered possible now.{{cite journal|author=Smith Audrey U |year=1957 |title=Problems in the Resuscitation of Mammals from Body Temperatures Below 0 °C|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences|volume=147|issue=929|pages=533–44|bibcode=1957RSPSB.147..533S|doi=10.1098/rspb.1957.0077|jstor=83173|pmid=13494469|s2cid=40568140}}{{cite journal|vauthors=Fahy GM, Wowk B, Wu J|year=2006|title=Cryopreservation of complex systems: the missing link in the regenerative medicine supply chain|url=http://www.21cm.com/articles/Missing_Link.pdf|journal=Rejuvenation Research |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=279–291 |citeseerx=10.1.1.539.7419|doi=10.1089/rej.2006.9.279|pmid=16706656|access-date=2017-10-24|archive-date=2017-10-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171025022108/http://www.21cm.com/articles/Missing_Link.pdf|url-status=live}} Large vitrified organs tend to develop fractures during cooling,{{cite journal |vauthors=Fahy GM, Saur J, Williams RJ |title=Physical problems with the vitrification of large biological systems|journal=Cryobiology |volume=27 |issue=5 |pages=492–510 |date=October 1990 |pmid=2249453 |doi=10.1016/0011-2240(90)90038-6}} a problem worsened by the large tissue masses and very low temperatures of cryonics.{{cite magazine |author=Wowk B |title=Systems for Intermediate Temperature Storage for Fracture Reduction and Avoidance| magazine =Cryonics| pages = 7–13| year=2011| volume =2011| issue =3| publisher = Alcor Life Extension Foundation| issn=1054-4305}} Without cryoprotectants, cell shrinkage and high salt concentrations during freezing usually prevent frozen cells from functioning again after thawing. Ice crystals can also disrupt connections between cells that are necessary for organs to function.{{cite journal|vauthors=Fahy GM, Levy DI, Ali SE|date=June 1987|title=Some Emerging Principles Underlying the Physical Properties, Biological Actions, and Utility of Vitrification Solutions|journal=Cryobiology|volume=24|issue=3|pages=196–213|doi=10.1016/0011-2240(87)90023-X|pmid=3595164}}

Some cryonics organizations use vitrification without a chemical fixation step,{{cite web |title=Alcor Position Statement on Brain Preservation Prize |publisher=Alcor Life Extension Foundation |date=2016-02-12 |url=http://www.alcor.org/blog/alcor-position-statement-on-brain-preservation-foundation-prize/ |access-date=2016-03-20 |archive-date=2016-02-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160215230517/http://www.alcor.org/blog/alcor-position-statement-on-brain-preservation-foundation-prize/ |url-status=live}} sacrificing some structural preservation quality for less damage at the molecular level. Some scientists, like João Pedro Magalhães, have questioned whether using a deadly chemical for fixation eliminates the possibility of biological revival, making chemical fixation unsuitable for cryonics.{{cite web |title=Mammal brain frozen and thawed out perfectly for first time |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2077140-mammal-brain-frozen-and-thawed-out-perfectly-for-first-time/ |access-date=2016-06-06 |work=New Scientist |archive-date=2016-06-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616185949/https://www.newscientist.com/article/2077140-mammal-brain-frozen-and-thawed-out-perfectly-for-first-time/ |url-status=live}}

Outside of cryonics firms and cryonics-linked interest groups, many scientists are very skeptical about cryonics methods. Cryobiologist Dayong Gao has said, "we simply don't know if [subjects have] been damaged to the point where they've 'died' during vitrification because the subjects are now inside liquid nitrogen canisters." Based on experience with organ transplants, biochemist Ken Storey argues that "even if you only wanted to preserve the brain, it has dozens of different areas which would need to be cryopreserved using different protocols".

Revival would require repairing damage from lack of oxygen, cryoprotectant toxicity, thermal stress (fracturing), and freezing in tissues that do not successfully vitrify, followed by reversing the cause of death. In many cases, extensive tissue regeneration would be necessary.{{cite journal |last1=Karow |first1=Armand |last2=Webb |first2=Watts |title=Tissue Freezing: A theory for injury and survival |journal=Cryobiology |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=99–108 |date=1965 |pmid=5860601 |doi=10.1016/s0011-2240(65)80094-3}} This revival technology remains speculative.

Historically, people had little control over how their bodies were treated after death, as religion held jurisdiction over the matter.{{cite book |last1=Dukeminier |first1=Jesse |last2=Sitkoff |first2=Robert |date=2013 |title=Wills, Trusts, and Estates |publisher=Wolters Kluwer Law & Business in New York |page=507 |isbn=978-1-4548-2457-2}} But secular courts began to exercise jurisdiction over corpses and use discretion in carrying out deceased people's wishes. Most countries legally treat preserved bodies as deceased persons because of laws that forbid vitrifying someone who is medically alive.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/feb/14/research.cryonics|title=Patients who are frozen in time|website=TheGuardian.com|date=14 February 2008|access-date=12 October 2020|archive-date=12 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190512202813/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/feb/14/research.cryonics|url-status=live}} In France, cryonics is not considered a legal mode of body disposal;{{cite web |url=http://www.leparticulier.fr/jcms/c_101664/conseil-d-etat-du-06/01/2006-n-260307-cryogenisation-interdiction |title=Conseil d'État du 06/01/2006, n° 260307: Cryogénisation – interdiction |access-date=2014-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107144511/http://www.leparticulier.fr/jcms/c_101664/conseil-d-etat-du-06/01/2006-n-260307-cryogenisation-interdiction |archive-date=2014-01-07 |url-status=dead}} only burial, cremation, and formal body donation to science are allowed, though bodies may legally be shipped to other countries for cryonic freezing.{{cite news|last=Chrisafis|first=Angelique|title=Freezer failure ends couple's hopes of life after death|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/mar/17/france.internationalnews|access-date=8 January 2014|newspaper=The Guardian|date=16 March 2006|archive-date=8 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108035430/http://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/mar/17/france.internationalnews |url-status=live}} As of 2015, British Columbia prohibits the sale of arrangements for cryonic body preservation.{{cite news|last=Proctor|first=Jason|title=Immortality sought through B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/immortality-sought-through-b-c-supreme-court-lawsuit-1.3153430|access-date=21 February 2016|publisher=CBC News|date=16 July 2015|archive-date=21 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160221125254/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/immortality-sought-through-b-c-supreme-court-lawsuit-1.3153430|url-status=live}} In Russia, cryonics falls outside both the medical industry and the funeral services industry, making it easier than in the U.S. to get hospitals and morgues to release cryonics candidates.

In 2016, the English High Court ruled in favor of a mother's right to seek cryopreservation of her terminally ill 14-year-old daughter, as the girl wanted, contrary to the father's wishes. The decision was made on the basis that the case represented a conventional dispute over the disposal of the girl's body, although the judge urged ministers to seek "proper regulation" for the future of cryonic preservation after the hospital raised concerns about the competence and professionalism of the team that conducted the preservation procedures.{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38012267 |title=Terminally ill teen won historic ruling to preserve body |date=18 November 2016 |publisher=BBC News |language=en-GB |access-date=18 November 2016 |archive-date=18 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161118012553/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38012267|url-status=live}} In Alcor Life Extension Foundation v. Richardson, the Iowa Court of Appeals ordered the disinterment of Richardson, who was buried against his wishes, for cryopreservation.{{cite web |title=Alcor Life Extension Foundation v. Richardson |url=http://www.leagle.com/decision/In%20IACO%2020100512306/ALCOR%20LIFE%20EXTENSION%20FOUND.%20v.%20RICHARDSON |date=2010 |publisher=785 N.W.2d 717 |access-date=2017-01-07 |archive-date=2017-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107171724/http://www.leagle.com/decision/In%20IACO%2020100512306/ALCOR%20LIFE%20EXTENSION%20FOUND.%20v.%20RICHARDSON |url-status=live}}

A detailed legal examination by Jochen Taupitz concludes that cryonic storage is legal in Germany for an indefinite period.{{cite book |last1=Taupitz |first1=Jochen |last2=Fuhr |first2=Günther |last3=Zwick |first3=Anna |last4=Salkic |first4=Amina |date=2013 |title=Unterbrochenes Leben? |url=https://www.bookshop.fraunhofer.de/buch/unterbrochenes-leben/240032 |location=St. Ingbert, Germany |publisher=Fraunhofer Verlag |isbn=978-3-8396-0593-6 |access-date=2018-12-26 |archive-date=2018-12-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181227040823/https://www.bookshop.fraunhofer.de/buch/unterbrochenes-leben/240032 |url-status=live}}

Writing in Bioethics in 2009, David Shaw examined cryonics. The arguments he cited against it included changing the concept of death, the expense of preservation and revival, lack of scientific advancement to permit revival, temptation to use premature euthanasia, and failure due to catastrophe. Arguments in favor of cryonics include the potential benefit to society, the prospect of immortality, and the benefits associated with avoiding death. Shaw explores the expense and the potential payoff, and applies an adapted version of Pascal's Wager to the question.Shaw, David. "Cryoethics: seeking life after death", Bioethics 23.9 (2009): 515–521. APA He argues that someone who bets on cryonic preservation risks losing "a bit of money" but potentially gains a longer life and perhaps immortality. Shaun Pattinson responds that Shaw's calculation is incomplete because "being revived only equates to winning the wager if the revived life is worth living. A longer life of unremitting suffering, perhaps due to irreparable nerve damage or even the actions of an evil reviver, is unlikely to be considered preferable to non-revival".{{Cite book |last=Pattinson |first=Shaun D. |title=Law at the frontiers of biomedicine: creating, enhancing and extending human life |date=2023 |publisher=Hart |isbn=978-1-5099-4107-0 |location=Oxford}}

In 2016, Charles Tandy wrote in support of cryonics, arguing that honoring someone's last wishes is seen as a benevolent duty in American and many other cultures.{{cite SSRN|title=An Open Letter to Physicians in Death-with-Dignity States (The Case of a Terminally Ill Cryonicist)|last=Tandy|first=Charles|date=8 February 2017|ssrn=2913107}}

{{See also|Cryopreservation#History|Embryo cryopreservation}}

Cryopreservation was applied to human cells beginning in 1954 with frozen sperm, which was thawed and used to inseminate three women.{{cite news|title=Fatherhood After Death Has Now Been Proved Possible|newspaper=Cedar Rapids Gazette|date=April 9, 1954}} The freezing of humans was first scientifically proposed by Michigan professor Robert Ettinger in The Prospect of Immortality (1962).{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/nov/18/the-cryonics-dilemma-will-deep-frozen-bodies-be-fit-for-new-life|title=The cryonics dilemma: will deep-frozen bodies be fit for new life?|website=The Guardian|last=Devlin|first=Hannah|date=November 18, 2016|access-date=September 22, 2018|archive-date=September 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180923052213/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/nov/18/the-cryonics-dilemma-will-deep-frozen-bodies-be-fit-for-new-life|url-status=live}} In 1966, the first human body was frozen—though it had been embalmed for two months—by being placed in liquid nitrogen and stored at just above freezing. The middle-aged woman from Los Angeles, whose name is unknown, was soon thawed and buried by relatives.{{cite web|url=https://alcor.org/Library/html/suspensionfailures.html|title=Suspension Failures – Lessons from the Early Days|last=Perry|first=R. Michael|website=ALCOR: Life Extension Foundation|date=October 2014|access-date=August 29, 2018|archive-date=April 16, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200416155826/https://alcor.org/Library/html/suspensionfailures.html|url-status=live}}

The first body to be cryopreserved and then frozen in hope of future revival was that of James Bedford. Alcor's Mike Darwin says Bedford's body was cryopreserved around two hours after his death by cardiorespiratory arrest (secondary to metastasized kidney cancer) on January 12, 1967.{{cite web |title=Dear Dr. Bedford (and those who will care for you after I do) |publisher=Cryonics |date=July 1991 |url=http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/BedfordLetter.htm |first1=Mike |last1=Darwin |access-date=2009-08-23 |archive-date=2020-03-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200316200916/https://www.alcor.org/Library/html/BedfordLetter.htm |url-status=live}} Bedford's corpse is the only one frozen before 1974 still preserved today. In 1976, Ettinger founded the Cryonics Institute; his corpse was cryopreserved in 2011. In 1981, Robert Nelson, "a former TV repairman with no scientific background" who led the Cryonics Society of California, was sued for allowing nine bodies to thaw and decompose in the 1970s; in his defense, he claimed that the Cryonics Society had run out of money. This lowered the reputation of cryonics in the U.S.{{cite news|title=Inside the weird world of cryonics|url=http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/d634e198-a435-11e5-873f-68411a84f346.html|access-date=21 February 2016|work=Financial Times|date=18 December 2015|archive-date=8 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160908025414/http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/d634e198-a435-11e5-873f-68411a84f346.html|url-status=live}}

In 2018, a Y-Combinator startup called Nectome was recognized for developing a method of preserving brains with chemicals rather than by freezing. The method is fatal, performed as euthanasia under general anesthesia, but the hope is that future technology will allow the brain to be physically scanned into a computer simulation, neuron by neuron.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610456/a-startup-is-pitching-a-mind-uploading-service-that-is-100-percent-fatal/ |title=A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is "100 percent fatal" |date=13 March 2018 |magazine=MIT Technology Review |first1=Antonio |last1=Regalado |access-date=22 March 2018 |archive-date=23 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123132955/https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/03/13/144721/a-startup-is-pitching-a-mind-uploading-service-that-is-100-percent-fatal/ |url-status=live}}

According to The New York Times, cryonicists are predominantly non-religious white men, outnumbering women by about three to one.{{cite news|last=Howley|first=Kerry|title=Until Cryonics Do Us Part|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/magazine/11cryonics-t.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=2 February 2016|work=The New York Times Magazine|date=7 July 2010|archive-date=16 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516053504/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/magazine/11cryonics-t.html|url-status=live}} According to The Guardian, as of 2008, while most cryonicists used to be young, male, and "geeky", recent demographics have shifted slightly toward whole families.

In 2015, Du Hong, a 61-year-old female writer of children's literature, became the first known Chinese national to have her head cryopreserved.{{cite web |author=Stephen Chen |url=http://www.scmp.com/tech/science-research/article/1859328/cheating-death-elderly-writer-first-known-chinese-test-subject |title=Cheating death? Elderly writer is the first known Chinese to embrace cryogenics, her head now frozen by lab in Arizona |publisher=South China Morning Post |url-access=subscription |date=2015-09-18 |access-date=2015-09-24 |archive-date=2015-09-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920225245/http://www.scmp.com/tech/science-research/article/1859328/cheating-death-elderly-writer-first-known-chinese-test-subject |url-status=live}}

Cryonics is generally regarded as a fringe pseudoscience.{{cite news |title=Mainstream science is frosty over keeping the dead on ice |author=Steinbeck RL |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=29 September 2002 |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2002-09-29-0209290429-story.html |access-date=2019-07-17 |archive-date=2019-07-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717153237/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2002-09-29-0209290429-story.html |url-status=live}} Between 1982{{cite magazine|magazine=Cryonics|date=November 1982|author=Jerry D. Leaf|access-date=2024-12-03|title=Cryo-82, The Big Freeze|pages=5–11,24|publisher= Alcor Life Extension Foundation|url=https://www.cryonicsarchive.org/docs/cryonics-magazine-1982-11.pdf|url-status=live|quote=There are other members of the Society for Cryobiology that are involved in cryonics, but have been told they would be excluded from their chosen profession, cryobiology, if this became public knowledge.}} and November 2018, the Society for Cryobiology rejected members who practiced cryonics,{{cite web|date=2022-10-14|access-date=2024-12-03|website=MIT Technology Review|title=Why the sci-fi dream of cryonics never died|url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/10/14/1060951/cryonics-sci-fi-freezing-bodies|last=Clarke|first=Laurie|url-status=live|quote=The Society for Cryobiology has even dropped its past cryonics-related restrictions.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221014210354/https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/10/14/1060951/cryonics-sci-fi-freezing-bodies/|archive-date=2022-10-14}} and issued a public statement saying that cryonics "is an act of speculation or hope, not science", and as such outside the scope of the Society.{{cite web |url=https://www.societyforcryobiology.org/assets/documents/Position_Statement_Cryonics_Nov_18.pdf |title=Position Statement - Cryonics |website=Society for Cryobiology |date=November 2018 |access-date=2019-07-18 |archive-date=2019-04-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401172118/https://www.societyforcryobiology.org/assets/documents/Position_Statement_Cryonics_Nov_18.pdf |url-status=live|quote=The Society recognizes and respects the freedom of individuals to hold and express their own opinions and to act, within lawful limits, according to their beliefs. Preferences regarding disposition of postmortem human bodies or brains are clearly a matter of personal choice and, therefore, inappropriate subjects of Society policy. The Society does, however, take the position that the knowledge necessary for the revival of live or dead whole mammals following cryopreservation does not currently exist and can come only from conscientious and patient research in cryobiology and medicine. In short, the act of preserving a body, head or brain after clinical death and storing it indefinitely on the chance that some future generation may restore it to life is an act of speculation or hope, not science, and as such is outside the purview of the Society for Cryobiology.}}

Russian company KrioRus is the first non-U.S. vendor of cryonics services. Yevgeny Alexandrov, chair of the Russian Academy of Sciences commission against pseudoscience, said there was "no scientific basis" for cryonics, and that the company was based on "unfounded speculation".{{cite news |newspaper=Daily Telegraph |title='Insurance' against death: Russian cryonics firm plans Swiss lab for people in pursuit of eternal life |first=Alex |last=Luhn |date=11 November 2017 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/11/insurance-against-death-russian-cryonics-firm-plans-swiss |url-access=subscription |access-date=28 July 2019 |archive-date=28 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190728135525/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/11/insurance-against-death-russian-cryonics-firm-plans-swiss/ |url-status=live}}

Scientists have expressed skepticism about cryonics in media sources, and the Norwegian philosopher Ole Martin Moen has written that the topic receives a "minuscule" amount of attention in academia.

While some neuroscientists contend that all the subtleties of a human mind are contained in its anatomical structure,{{cite news|author1=Jerry Adler|title=The Quest to Upload Your Mind into the Digital Space|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/quest-upload-mind-into-digital-space-180954946/|access-date=21 February 2016|work=Smithsonian Magazine|date=May 2015|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303055411/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/quest-upload-mind-into-digital-space-180954946/|url-status=live}} few will comment directly on cryonics due to its speculative nature. People who intend to be frozen are often "looked at as a bunch of kooks".{{cite news|title=Brain Freeze: Can putting faith in cryonics deliver life after death?|url=http://www.torontosun.com/2015/10/06/brain-freeze-can-putting-faith-in-cryonics-deliver-life-after-death|newspaper=Toronto Sun|access-date=21 February 2016|date=6 October 2015|archive-date=12 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312064530/http://www.torontosun.com/2015/10/06/brain-freeze-can-putting-faith-in-cryonics-deliver-life-after-death|url-status=live}} Cryobiologist Kenneth B. Storey said in 2004 that cryonics is impossible and will never be possible, as cryonics proponents are proposing to "overturn the laws of physics, chemistry, and molecular science".{{cite journal |author=Miller K |title=Cryonics redux: is vitrification a viable alternative to immortality as a popsicle? |journal=Skeptic |volume=11 |issue=1 |year=2004 |page=24}} Neurobiologist Michael Hendricks has said, "Reanimation or simulation is an abjectly false hope that is beyond the promise of technology and is certainly impossible with the frozen, dead tissue offered by the 'cryonics' industry".

Anthropologist Simon Dein writes that cryonics is a typical pseudoscience because of its lack of falsifiability and testability. In his view, cryonics is not science, but religion: it places faith in nonexistent technology and promises to overcome death.{{cite journal |title=Cryonics: Science or Religion |vauthors=Dein S |journal=Journal of Religion & Health |year=2022 |volume=61 |issue=4 |pages=3164–3176 |pmid=33523374 |s2cid=231745500 |doi=10.1007/s10943-020-01166-6}}

William T. Jarvis has written, "Cryonics might be a suitable subject for scientific research, but marketing an unproven method to the public is quackery".{{cite book |author=Butler K |title=A Consumer's Guide to "Alternative" Medicine |publisher=Prometheus Books |year=1992 |page=173}}{{cite web |website=The Skeptics Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions |last=Carroll |first=Robert Todd|date =5 December 2013|title=Cryonics |authorlink=Robert Todd Carroll|quote=A business based on little more than hope for developments that can be imagined by science is quackery. There is little reason to believe that the promises of cryonics will ever be fulfilled |url=https://www.skepdic.com/cryonics.html}}

According to cryonicist Aschwin de Wolf and others, cryonics can often produce intense hostility from spouses who are not cryonicists. James Hughes, the executive director of the pro-life-extension Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, has not personally signed up for cryonics, calling it a worthy experiment but saying, "I value my relationship with my wife."

Cryobiologist Dayong Gao has said, "People can always have hope that things will change in the future, but there is no scientific foundation supporting cryonics at this time."{{cite news|title=Frozen body: Can we return from the dead?|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/0/23695785|access-date=21 February 2016|publisher=BBC News|date=15 August 2013|archive-date=12 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312083619/http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/0/23695785|url-status=live}} While it is universally agreed that personal identity is uninterrupted when brain activity temporarily ceases during incidents of accidental drowning (where people have been restored to normal functioning after being completely submerged in cold water for up to 66 minutes), one argument against cryonics is that a centuries-long absence from life might interrupt personal identity, such that the revived person would "not be themself".

Maastricht University bioethicist David Shaw raises the argument that there would be no point in being revived in the far future if one's friends and families are dead, leaving them all alone, but he notes that family and friends can also be frozen, that there is "nothing to prevent the thawed-out freezee from making new friends", and that a lonely existence may be preferable to none at all.

{{main|Suspended animation in fiction}}

Suspended animation is a popular subject in science fiction and fantasy settings. It is often the means by which a character is transported into the future. The characters Philip J. Fry in Futurama and Khan Noonien Singh in Star Trek exemplify this trope.

A survey in Germany found that about half of the respondents were familiar with cryonics, and about half of those familiar with it had learned of it from films or television.{{cite journal |vauthors=Kaiser S, Gross D, Lohmeier J, Rosentreter M, Raschke J |title=Attitudes and acceptance toward the technology of cryonics in Germany |journal=International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=1–7 |year=2014 |pmid=24499638 |s2cid=41185307 |doi=10.1017/S0266462313000718}}

The town of Nederland, Colorado, hosts an annual Frozen Dead Guy Days festival to commemorate a substandard attempt at cryopreservation.{{cite web |last=McPheeters |first=Sam |title=Home Cryonics in the Smirk Age |work=The Corpse |publisher=ViceLand.com |date=May 2010 |url=http://www.viceland.com/int/v17n5/htdocs/the-corpse-428.php |access-date=2020-01-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717195908/http://www.viceland.com/int/v17n5/htdocs/the-corpse-428.php |archive-date=2011-07-17}}

{{see also|List of people who arranged for cryonics}}

Corpses subjected to the cryonics process include those of baseball players Ted Williams and his son John Henry Williams (in 2002 and 2004, respectively),{{cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=1753358|title=Leukemia claims son of Hall of Famer |work=ESPN.com |date=2004-03-07|access-date=2016-02-18|archive-date=2016-01-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105223704/http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1753358|url-status=live}} engineer and doctor L. Stephen Coles (in 2014),{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-stephen-coles-20141205-story.html|title=L. Stephen Coles dies at 73; studied extreme aging in humans|author=Steve Chawkins |date=4 December 2014|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=17 April 2020|archive-date=27 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227213836/http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-stephen-coles-20141205-story.html|url-status=live}} economist and entrepreneur Phil Salin, and software engineer Hal Finney (in 2014).{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2014/08/hal-finney/|title=Bitcoin's Earliest Adopter Is Cryonically Freezing His Body to See the Future |url-access=limited |first1=Andy |last1=Greenberg |magazine=WIRED|date=2014-08-29|access-date=2017-03-06|archive-date=2018-08-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180803052532/https://www.wired.com/2014/08/hal-finney/|url-status=live}}

People known to have arranged for cryonics upon death include PayPal founders Luke Nosek{{cite book|last1=Thiel|first1=Peter|title=Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future|date=September 16, 2014|publisher=Crown Business|isbn=978-0-8041-3929-8|page=1 (chapter 14)}} and Peter Thiel,{{cite news|last=Brown|first=Mick|title=Peter Thiel: the billionaire tech entrepreneur on a mission to cheat death|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/11098971/Peter-Thiel-the-billionaire-tech-entrepreneur-on-a-mission-to-cheat-death.html|access-date=16 October 2014|work=The Telegraph|date=19 September 2014|archive-date=18 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018164619/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/11098971/Peter-Thiel-the-billionaire-tech-entrepreneur-on-a-mission-to-cheat-death.html|url-status=live}} Oxford transhumanists Nick Bostrom and Anders Sandberg, and transhumanist philosopher David Pearce.{{cite web |last=Pearce |first=David |title=Quora Answers 2015 – 2022 by David Pearce|url=https://www.hedweb.com/quora/2015.html#cryonics|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220116063509/https://www.hedweb.com/quora/2015.html|archive-date=January 16, 2022|website=The Hedonistic Imperative}} Larry King once arranged for cryonics but, according to Inside Edition, changed his mind.{{cite web|title=Was Larry King Cryogenically Frozen After his Death?|publisher=Inside Edition|url=https://www.insideedition.com/was-larry-king-cryogenically-frozen-after-his-death-64558|date=2021-01-27|access-date=2021-01-30}}{{cite news |newspaper=New York Times |title=Larry King Is Preparing for the Final Cancellation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/magazine/larry-king-is-preparing-for-the-final-cancellation.html |vauthors=Leibovich M |date=26 August 2015 |access-date=14 February 2020 |archive-date=6 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206164249/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/magazine/larry-king-is-preparing-for-the-final-cancellation.html |url-status=live}}

Sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein wanted to have his head and penis frozen after death.{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |title=Jeffrey Epstein Hoped to Seed Human Race With His DNA |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.html |vauthors=Stewart JB, Goldstein M, Silver-Greenberg J |date=31 July 2019 |access-date=3 November 2019 |archive-date=31 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731235929/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.html |url-status=live}}{{cite news |newspaper=Newsweek |title=Jeffrey Epstein Wanted to Freeze His Head and Penis After Dying: Report |url=https://www.newsweek.com/jeffrey-epstein-freeze-head-penis-cryonics-1452065 |author=Croucher S |date=1 August 2019 |access-date=3 November 2019 |archive-date=31 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191031204954/https://www.newsweek.com/jeffrey-epstein-freeze-head-penis-cryonics-1452065 |url-status=live}}

The corpses of some are mistakenly believed to have undergone cryonics. The urban legend that Walt Disney's remains were cryopreserved is false; it was cremated and interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.{{cite news |last=Mikkelson |first=David |title=FACT CHECK: Was Walt Disney Frozen? |url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/suspended-animation/ |website=Snopes |date=19 October 1995 |access-date=21 January 2019 |archive-date=23 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123132948/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/suspended-animation/ |url-status=live}}{{efn|Robert Nelson told the Los Angeles Times that he thought Walt Disney wanted to be cryopreserved, for Walt Disney Studios had called him to ask detailed questions about his organisation, the Cryonics Society of California. However, Nelson clarified that "They had him cremated. I personally have seen his ashes."{{cite web|url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/54196/disney-ice-truth-about-walt-disney-and-cryogenics|title=Disney on Ice: The Truth About Walt Disney and Cryogenics|last=Conradt|first=Stacy|date=15 December 2013|website=Mental Floss|access-date=21 January 2019|archive-date=10 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190110183415/http://mentalfloss.com/article/54196/disney-ice-truth-about-walt-disney-and-cryogenics|url-status=live}}}} Timothy Leary was a long-time cryonics advocate and signed up with a major cryonics provider, but changed his mind shortly before his death and was not cryopreserved. The New York Times, "A Final Turn-On Lifts Timothy Leary Off" by Marlise Simons, 22 April 1997

• Aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation
• Brain in a vat
• Cryptobiosis
• Deep hypothermic circulatory arrest
• Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation
• Extropianism
• Hibernation
• Life extension
• Supercooling
• Targeted temperature management
• Technological utopianism

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite episode |title=Mistakes Were Made |url=https://www.thisamericanlife.org/354/mistakes-were-made |series=This American Life |series-link=This American Life |network=The Public Radio Exchange (PRX) |station=WBEZ Chicago |date=18 April 2008 |number=354 |transcript=Transcript |transcript-url=https://www.thisamericanlife.org/354/transcript}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Commons category}}

{{Cryonics|state=expanded}}

{{Death}}

{{Pseudoscience}}

Category:Cooling technology

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Category:Fictional technology

Category:Life extension

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Category:Scientific speculation

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