Cryonics, the word disgusts some people while astounding others. Cryonics
is the preservation of a legally dead human and/or animal in liquid nitrogen in
hopes that their body will someday be unfrozen and they will be restored in complete
mind. Cryonics come from the words cryogenics, the physics of low temperature, and
cryobiology, the science of low-temperature effects on biological systems. Cryonists are
the scientists located in the field of scientific research that are striving to cool down
organs, tissues, and organisms to the point where the decaying process is slowed down to
absolutely nothing and then restore the organism back to its original condition.
Cryonics was first suggested by Robert Ettinger. Ettinger’s book The Prospect of
Immortality described the methods and rationalized the concepts of freezing one‘s body
for future uses. Robert appeared on many talk shows and soon the media coverage on
cryonics began to snowball along with the idea of cryonics. In 1962, Evan Cooper
independently published his book Immortality: Physically, Scientifically, Now,
supporting the idea of cryonics. A year following the publication of his book, Evan
Cooper founded the world’s first cryonics organization, the Life Extension Society. There
is also a cryonic organization recently created in Russian and plans of a new organization
in Australia that offers perfusion, the process of injecting and circulating fluids through
the blood vessels, and storage of cryonic patients within the next few years.
Religion plays a major part in whether or not a person believes that cryonics
should be practiced. However, cryonicists argue that cryonics is simply a medical
procedure. Another point of view is that cryonics is an example of a human’s selfish and
greedy trait and that the money spent into preserving one’s body should be put towards a
more practical use. While all sides have some pretty strong stand points, they also have...