Cryonic Suspension

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Cryonics

Suzie Q, a twenty-five year old woman, is dying of AIDS. When she learned this, she heard about something called cryonic suspension. A cryonist at the hospital where she gets treatment told her how cryonics freezes people when they are pronounced dead. When the cure for AIDS is developed, she would then be revived and able to start a new life. Suzie Q decided to participate in cryonic suspension and spent her life savings to pay for the freezing process. Five years later, Suzie Q died. The cryonics team flew her to an Alcor Life Extension Foundation where she was frozen. Suzie Q’s family did not know about her plans and were extremely upset because they felt it was impossible to conduct a proper funeral without a body to bury.

Cryonics what a funny word yet the meaning of this funny word is extremely serious. In Newsday Sidney C. Schaer a news writer wrote this, “THE WORD ‘cryonics’- the practice of freezing a dead body in hopes of someday reviving it- didn’t enter the dictionary until 1967. But 200 years earlier, Ben Franklin was dreaming of a frozen ride to immortality” (Schaer). Cryonic suspension requires that the body's temperature be lowered to -196 degrees Celsius or the same as liquid nitrogen. Then the body or head is stored in a dewar, which is like a thermos, and put into cold storage. “This flask is continuously being filled with liquid nitrogen because the nitrogen is evaporating continuously to keep the temperature low” (Cryonic). The cryonic medical team will only reanimate the patients when the cure for what killed the patient is found. Although cryonics is a medical science break-though, it should be outlawed in the United States for several reasons. Cryonic suspension could cause over population and wasted money, cell damage and the patients could possibly be used as guinea pigs, and how will they adapt to the future?

Obviously, people are interested in cryonics because it will prolong their life. In the near future, there will be cures for diseases such as AIDS and cancer. Cryonics would be able to give a frozen person with such diseases a chance to be eventually cured. Cryonics would prolong life not only to the age of eighty, but possibly to about one hundred and twenty. “Imagine the chance of being reunited with the people you care about, in the future of exciting possibilities” (What). A life in the futu...

... middle of paper ...

...our Life. 3 December 2001.

http://www.dse.nl/~hkl/e_cryo.htm: Cryonic Suspension. Henry Kluytmans. November 16, 2001.

“Cryonics: Frequently Asked Questions List” (FAQ). Oxford University Libraries Automation Service. 29 January 1995. 27 November 2001.

http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm1453-200012115.htm: Cryonics still has believers. Friday, December 15, 2000. December 18, 2001.

http://www.babesinspace.net/report/reports/2000-04-17.html: Genetic Engineering and Cryonic Freezing: Thoughts Inspired by Frankenstein. Harley Geiger and Bryan Osborn. April 17, 2000. November 29, 2001.

Hoagland, Mahlon B., The Roots of Life A Layman’s Guide to Genes, Evolution and the Ways of Cells. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1978, p. 149.

Schaer, Sidney C. “Long Island: Our Future/ Back to the Future/ Cryonics in a Deep Freeze/ Predictions from the Past that Haven’t Come True…Yet.” Newsday 5 Feb. 1999: A19

Online. America Online. 11 May 1999. 16 November 2001.

Stuttaford, Andrew. "Frozen Future." National Review (2 September 1996): n. page Lamp. 26 April 1999.

http://www.alcor.org/01b.html What We Do Cryo Transport and The Alcor Life Extension Foundation. 16 November 2001.

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