Teenage Cryonicist

One of the first subjects I covered on HPANWO, shortly after I launched it in 2007, was cryonics. This is the practice of cryopreserving a recently deceased body in the hope that the dead person can be resuscitated and cured at a later date, perhaps only in the distant future when technology has sufficiently advanced. Cyropreservation is a common medical procedure for whole embryos, independent cells and tissue; sperm, ova etc. However it's debatable about whether it would work on an entire body. This hasn't stopped 350 people so far, and even a few dogs, having their bodies cryopreserved after their death, with over a thousand more waiting in the wings. Cryonics involves freezing the body at a very low temperature, below minus 130 degrees centigrade. This is far more complicated than it sounds because the body has to be dehydrated first as much as possible otherwise our internal water would tear apart our cells when it forms ice crystals. The blood and fluid in our bodies is replaced with an alcohol-based antifreeze chemical. The body is then placed in an insulated canister filled with liquid nitrogen to keep it cold, to be left there indefinitely. The idea is that at some time in the future scientists will invent the means to revive the corpse, bring the departed person back to life, and also heal whatever illness or injury claimed their lives in the first place. Cryonics is just one part of the general life-extension movement headed up by the bushy-bearded maverick Aubrey de Grey. See background links below for more detail. Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2GLAgOaRVI.

A new cryonics story has just emerged that is very unusual and especially poignant. The patient in this case is a fourteen year old girl. Because of her age she has not been identified for legal reasons and is known by the media as "JS". JS lived in London with her mother. Her father was estranged and she hadn't even seen him since 2010 when she was aged only about eight years old. JS was struck down by a rare and fast-acting cancer. She was given a terminal prognosis, but then she went online and looked up cryonics. She decided to take a chance on it and wrote this letter to the judge: "I have been asked to explain why I want this unusual thing done. I am only 14 years old and I don't want to die but I know I am going to die. I think being cryopreserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up - even in hundreds of years' time. I don't want to be buried underground. I want to live and live longer and I think that in the future they may find a cure for my cancer and wake me up. I want to have this chance. This is my wish." Because she is only fourteen the law states that she needs her parents' permission. Her mother supported her, but her father did not. JS took the case all the way to the high court and eventually the judge ruled that as long as her mother supported her, JS could have her last wish granted. It's appropriate that today is International Men's Day, see: http://www.internationalmensday.com/, (no Google logo of course) and there is an issue related to it here. I don't know why JS' parents divorced or why the father has not had access to his daughter. Of course most people will simply assume that it's because he didn't care about her. However it turns out he made some applications to visit his daughter and these were turned down; therefore the bar is raised and the call goes out that he was simply a violent alcoholic or sexual abuser or something. Do we know that for sure? What we do know is that the father changed his mind about the cryonics and offered JS a deal. He would agree to her last wish if he could see her body after she died. She said no. This is odd. She felt so strongly about her father not coming near her, even after death, that in order to stop him she risked her entire case, the legal ruling going against her and scuppering her bid for immortality. All she had to do was agree to let him see her after death and the whole matter could have been settled out of court in an instant. This does indicate some passionately bad feeling in their relationship, for whatever reason. JS died peacefully on the 17th of October surrounded by her family. The judge who granted her request came to visit her too. Whatever happens next to her; I hope she is happy and well. Cryonics is expensive; a whole-body process costs £37,000. Just having just your head frozen is a bit cheaper. Her grandparents raised the money.

As a former hospital porter I know the usual procedure for disposing of an inpatient's dead body, yet with a cryonicist it's entirely different. A team of volunteers from Cryonics UK was on standby outside the hospital and as soon as JS was pronounced dead by her doctor they moved in and took her body away. The hospital staff were concerned and confused by this unusual practice and the judge in the hearing made note of this, saying that there should be more regulation for cryonics in future. I'm personally far more suspicious of state interference and find its absence rather comforting, but it might concern others that the cryonics industry is completely unregulated. Indeed when the movement began in the 1960's the first company went bust; and, unfortunately, there was no option except to remove the bodies from storage and bury them. Today there are three organizations that provide cryonics services, Alcor and the Cryonics Institute in the USA, and KiroRus in Russia. Things have improved a lot since the early days and when JS died she was immediately placed in an insulated canister with dry ice. Then she was transported by air to Michigan in the United States of America where the cryopreservation process could be completed. There is no such facility in Britain. Now her body is lying head down in a tank of super-chilled liquid gas, waiting for the day when... if... the means exist to resurrect her. However, if that happens what would her new life be like? She'll be emerging into a world decades, maybe centuries in the future. Society and culture could have changed beyond all recognition. It's likely that everybody she knows and loves will be dead. She may have little or no memory of her past. Now, to answer to the question you're all probably asking... No. I am definitely not going consider cryonics for myself. I pretty sure we have a natural afterlife anyway in the spiritual sense. Of course I'm not one hundred percent certain but I'm certain enough to risk it. Either way, I'm not sure I want to live forever in this world.

See here for background: http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2007/08/life-extension-movement.html.

And: http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2007/08/more-than-immortality.html.

And: http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/exit-of-dennis-potter.html.

And: http://hpanwo.blogspot.co.uk/2007/08/cryonics.html.