How cool would it be to be FROZEN and then brought back to life in the future?
Ok, to be honest, maybe it sounds a little bit creepy. Have an incurable illness? No problem. Scientists can just freeze your body, putting you into a cryosleep, and thaw you out after the cure for your (currently incurable) disease has been discovered, maybe in 30, 70, or even 500 years? Who knows? We’ve seen this in many sci-fi movies, but what is the real science behind this process, and will our technology ever be advanced enough to make it a reality? And more importantly, what would be the consequences?
The concept of using cryogens is as a form of preservation is currently being used in medicine. Like how doctors preserve a human organ before use for surgery by storing it at a low temperature. Or when neurosurgeons lower the patient’s body temperature to operate aneurysms without rupturing any blood vessels nearby, or when fertility clinics freeze human embryos until they’re needed. But freezing an entire human body is a completely different story. Surprisingly, this practice, known as cryonics has been practiced as
early as 1967 starting with the body of Dr. James Bedford. But I mean, freezing something is easy. The big problem is, we need to figure out how to bring them back to life. The largest company performing this service is the Alcor Life Extension Foundation which currently has 149 members cryopreserved as whole bodies or brains in liquid nitrogen, usually at -196°C. The company operates in hopes of restoring these people to full health in the future when the hypothetical new technology or treatment has been developed. As you can probably guess, many people oppose this idea. According to critics, companies that perform cryonics are just feeding false hope into people's dream of immortality and capitalizing on it.
These companies still have no stronghold in cryonics and scientists have never performed a successful restoration of life. There have been many ethical controversies and cases against these procedures as well. Minimum funding levels for Alcor are currently200,000 for full-body preservation and 80,000 for just the brain, and are to be paid upon death. This doesn’t include additional surcharges and pricey annual membership fees.
The breakthrough in cryonics depends on two factors: improving the freezing process and advancing the recovery when thawing. The thawing process is extremely difficult because If the procedure is not done at exactly the right temperature and speed, the cells could turn into ice crystals and the body will essentially be destroyed. Damages can be avoided if scientists carefully regulate the temperature and use different types of cryoprotectants. Although no human has been revived from cryonic suspension yet, scientists have successfully brought back other living
organisms from the near-dead state. Cry biologists are hoping that with nanotechnology, the revival process will be someday possible.
Nanotechnology uses microscopic machines to operate single atoms to make or repair human cells and tissues. They are planning to use nanotechnology to repair the cells that were damaged from aging or disease as well as those that were damaged during the cryonic suspension. But how exactly is cryonics performed? The moment a doctor announces the death of a patient, the company that the patient originally made a contract with will officially take over.
The company’s emergency response team will stabilize the body by making sure that the brain is getting enough oxygen and blood to preserve minimal function until the body reaches the suspension facility. During transport, the body is placed in a pack of ice and injected with anticoagulant, a substance that prevents blood from clotting.
Recently, a British teenager who died of cancer has become one of the many patients to be cryopreserved. These people generally hope that cryonics will help them be cured of the conditions that cause them to die. Cryopreservation occurs in nature for animals like reptiles, amphibians, and worms. Nematode worms are even able to regain some of their memory after being frozen. However, human tissue cannot just be frozen and thawed.
Thus, cryobiology aims to understand and minimize the potential damages. The main objective is to have a smooth transition into vitrification and avoid ice formation. Not only could the tissues rupture during the freezing process, but irreversible damage will also be done to cells and tissues if there are any temperature fluctuations during the thawing process. Simple substances like sugar and starch are used to alter the viscosity and to protect cell membranes. Scientists also use dimethyl sulfide, glycerol, ethylene glycol, and propanediol to prevent intracellular ice formation and re-crystallization during the thawing process. All biochemical reactions are slowed once entering the low temperature and effectively stopped.
Reviving a complete human body is not an easy feat, as you would have to get all the organs to start functioning simultaneously. Cryopreserved and vitrified cells and simple tissues are already regularly thawed and transplanted. Work has also started on cryopreservation of basic body parts such as fingers and legs. Some complex organs such as the kidney, liver, and lungs have been cryopreserved, thawed, and successfully re-transplanted in animals. And while human transplantation currently relies on chilling the organs and not freezing them, there is a solid case for developing cryopreservation of whole organs for therapeutic purposes.
However, even if this technology exists one day in the future - it would require many strict legal restrictions, not to mention raise many ethical and moral concerns that must be addressed. What do you think? If this technology was made possible, would you want to do it? Let us know in the comments below!~ Thanks for reading
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