Cryogenics

waltky · Nov 17, 2016

Granny wonderin' but won't it be cold?...

Terminally ill teen won historic ruling to freeze body
Fri, 18 Nov 2016 - A terminally ill girl won an historic legal fight shortly before she died to have her body frozen.

The girl, who was terminally ill with a rare cancer, was supported in her wish to be cryogenically preserved by her mother - but not by her father. A High Court judge ruled that the girl's mother should be allowed to decide what happened to the body. The girl, who died in October, has now been taken to the US and frozen. The details of her case have just been released. The teenager - who cannot be named - and who lived in the London area, used the internet to investigate cryonics during the last months of her life.

Future hope

Cryonics is the process of freezing and preserving a whole body in the hope that resuscitation and a cure are possible in the distant future. She wrote to the judge explaining that she wanted "to live longer" and did not want "to be buried underground". She wrote: "I think being cryopreserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up - even in hundreds of years' time." The judge, Mr Justice Peter Jackson, visited the girl in hospital and said he was moved by "the valiant way in which she was facing her predicament". His ruling, he said, was not about the rights or wrongs of cryonics but about a dispute between parents over the disposal of their daughter's body.

A gloved handholding a tube for cryogenic preservation

Frozen state

Cryonics is a controversial procedure and no-one yet knows if it is possible to revive people once their bodies are frozen. There are facilities in the US and Russia where bodies can be preserved in liquid nitrogen at very low temperatures (less than -130C) - but not in the UK. The cost of freezing a body for an infinite amount of time is estimated to be around £37,000.

The teenager's 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."

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wgabrie · Nov 17, 2016

Well I wonder if her brain was preserved by the freezing process or whether it decayed somewhat before she was put in.

I seem to remember hearing that one day we will be able to take a body and read its mind into a machine and then transfer it into a new body.

Just what we need if a body has a rare form of cancer and the body can't be saved.

We just need to develop a process to form a grown body to match the age of the old body and then transfer the memories to that new body.

Science fiction for now, but one day I see it become a possibility.

P.S. for those inclined to believe such things the aliens did that to me so I know it's possible.

Johnny Brady · Nov 18, 2016

Quote- "There are facilities in the US and Russia where bodies can be preserved in liquid nitrogen at very low temperatures (less than -130C)"
--------------------------------------------------------------

Huh, who the hell wants to wake up in a hundred years with frostbite?

waltky · Nov 18, 2016

But if she has already died, what good will it do...

UK ruling: The case of teen's frozen remains explained
Nov 18,`16 -- A British High Court judge has ruled in favor of a teenage girl with terminal cancer who wanted to be cryopreserved - frozen- upon her death so that she might be able to continue her life far in the future if her disease becomes curable. The girl died last month, and her wishes were carried out. Here are questions and answers about the unusual case and the technology involved:

WHY WAS THE CASE IN COURT?

The matter had to be resolved in the Family Division of the court because the girl was a minor of 14 whose divorced parents did not agree on what should be done with her body. Her lawyer, Zoe Fleetwood, told The Associated Press that there would have been no legal issue if the girl had been 18 or older. The disagreement between the parents made resolution much more difficult and the judge in the case, Peter Jackson, was charged with deciding what course of action was in the girl's best interest. He was persuaded in part by a heartbreaking letter she wrote in which she said she did not want to die and clearly expressed the wish to try cryopreservation.

DOES THAT MEAN THE JUDGE BELIEVES SHE CAN BE REVIVED IN THE FUTURE?

Absolutely not. The judge said his ruling was based on what was best for the girl, not a judicial finding on the validity of cryopreservation as a way to extend life. He did not attempt to decide whether there is a realistic hope of being brought back to life. The judge was clearly impressed with the girl and said there was no doubt that she was mentally capable of filing a lawsuit even though she was too weak to appear in court. He said it may be the first case of its kind in the world. But even if it is, it is unlikely to have many legal ramifications since it dealt only with the specific issues facing this family, not the broader ethical, medical and financial issues raised by the cryogenic preservation technique.

Garret Smyth poses for a photograph, during an interview with the Associated Press, in London, Friday, Nov. 18, 2016. Smyth was the first British resident to sign up for the cryonic preservation process. A High Court ruling cleared the way for a 14-year-old girl's remains to be taken to a specialist facility in the U.S. for the start of the cryonic preservation process.

HOW MUCH WILL IT COST TO KEEP HER REMAINS PRESERVED?

She chose a basic option at a cost of about 37,000 pounds ($46,000). Her remains have been flown to the United States, where a number of companies offer cryopreservation. The details of where her remains have been placed, and who is paying for the preservation, are being kept private by the family, as are the details of the cancer that killed her. The Arizona-based Alcor Life Extension Foundation is one of the best known facilities in the United States offering the service. Its website says preservation is "surprisingly affordable." The preservation technique is also offered in Russia.

DOES IT WORK?

Not yet. It may never be possible, but devotees believe it may be viable in the future as medical research continues to advance at a startling pace. It is true there have been tremendous advances in using ultra-low temperatures to preserve living cells. This has helped with the preservation of blood cells, sperm and embryos. Researchers have cleared a number of hurdles to come this far - but they concede that cryopreservation cannot at the moment be used to preserve large structures like human organs. There is a long, long way to go and as yet no evidence that a whole human body can be preserved and revived.

ARE FAMILY DISPUTES COMMON IN CASES INVOLVING CRYOPRESERVATION?

Very few have received publicity, but there were disagreements over using the preservation technique among Ted Williams' children after the Baseball Hall of Famer died in 2002. The issues that led to a court battle were different and didn't involve a minor - he was 83 when he died of cardiac arrest. His remains have been cryopreserved at a facility in Arizona.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-11-18-12-48-28
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Cryogenics

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