Cryopreservation is the preservation of the body in liquid nitrogen at the point of legal death to preserve it in the hope that medical science will one day be able to resuscitate and heal it.
According to Alcor, who specialise in cryonics, ‘The object of cryonics is to prevent death by preserving sufficient cell structure and chemistry so that recovery (including recovery of memory and personality) remains possible by foreseeable technology.’ [1]
When the body legally ‘dies’, it is cooled and connected to a blood circulation pump to keep the cells alive and supplied with enough oxygen to preserve minimal function until it can be taken to the cryopreservation facility.
The water in the body is replaced by chemicals called cryoprotectants which are used to prevent ice formation when the tissues are
cooled to such low temperatures - this process of deep cooling without actually freezing is known as vitrification.
The brain can also be preserved independently of the the body, with the intention of future resuscitation and regrowth of a healthy body around it - this is known as neuropreservation.
No evidence exists that cryopreservation will be effective, and nobody has been revived from it to date, but with successful cryopreservation having been carried out on a number of human tissues, advocates of it believe that it will be truly possible in the future.
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1. Alcor. (2012). What is Cryonics?. Available at http://www.alcor.org/AboutCryonics/index.html. Accessed 01.04.12.
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