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What is it?

Cryonics is the practice of keeping a clinically dead human body or brain at an extremely low temperature in the hope of later restoring it to life with the help of future medical technologies; however, 21st Century Medicine is not involved in cryonics ("21st Century"). Cyonicists are the people who contribute to this study in hopes of extending the terms of life and youth ("Cryonics Institute").

Cryonics Institute

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The Cryonics Institute offers cryopreservation services and information. As soon as possible after legal death, a member patient is infused with a substance to prevent ice formation, cooled to a temperature where physical decay essentially stops, and is then maintained indefinitely in cryostasis ("Cryonics Institute"). More info.

Freezing Dead People

According to the Cryonics Institute, people cannot be experimented on unless dead. The cells do not die immediately and therefore, vitrification (process of using cryprotectants to harden like glass instead of the damaging freezing method) must be done as soon as the "patient" is pronounced dead. If frozen at −200ºF or below, the organism can be preserved for thousands of years.

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Reasons for Possibilities of Success

(1) Many biological specimens have been cryopreserved, stored at liquid nitrogen temperature where all decay ceases, and revived; these include whole insects, vinegar eels, many types of human tissue including brain tissue, human embryos which have later grown into healthy children, and a few small mammalian organs. Increasingly more cells, organs and tissues are being reversibly cryopreserved ("Cryonics: A Basic").

(2) The repair capabilities of molecular biology and nanotechnology increasingly point to a future technology that can repair damage due to aging, disease and freezing ("Cryonics: A Basic").

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