Science & Technology

Can cryonics bring a person back to life ?

By T.K. Randall
August 18, 2013 ·  28 comments

Image Credit: CC 3.0 Robin Müller Cryonics offers customers the possibility of immortality by freezing their remains after death in the hope of being resuscitated again in the future. It's a long shot, but to the thousands of people willing to pay upwards of $250,000 to have themselves preserved, it's worth it. Clients who can't afford to have their whole body preserved can instead opt to have just their head frozen for a marginally smaller fee.

But will it ever be feasible to thaw out a person centuries down the line and bring them back to life ? There are significant risks of damage to the body and brain from prolonged periods of being frozen and even if this were not an issue, there's the small problem of resuscitating someone who has been dead for hundreds of years. Whether these problems will ever be solved sufficiently to make the preservation process worthwhile however remains to be seen.[!gad]Cryonics offers customers the possibility of immortality by freezing their remains after death in the hope of being resuscitated again in the future. It's a long shot, but to the thousands of people willing to pay upwards of $250,000 to have themselves preserved, it's worth it. Clients who can't afford to have their whole body preserved can instead opt to have just their head frozen for a marginally smaller fee.

But will it ever be feasible to thaw out a person centuries down the line and bring them back to life ? There are significant risks of damage to the body and brain from prolonged periods of being frozen and even if this were not an issue, there's the small problem of resuscitating someone who has been dead for hundreds of years. Whether these problems will ever be solved sufficiently to make the preservation process worthwhile however remains to be seen.

Source: BBC News | Comments (28)

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