A costly leap of faith that relies on future scientific advances, but is it even legal?
Q What is cryopreservation?
A The process of storing a human body at ultra-low temperatures in the hope that it can be preserved until advances in medical science make it possible to revive the person.
Adherents believe that clinical death is not the same as information-theoretic death, the loss of information in the brain that makes recovery of the original person impossible.
One option is to cut off the head to preserve only the brain, rather than the entire body. While the process is referred to as “freezing”, cells cannot be literally frozen, as ice crystals will invariably kill them.
Q Cryopreservation should begin within minutes of cardiac arrest. Is it legal? A The law is “a bit of a vacuum”, according to Professor Emily Jackson, expert in medical law and ethics at the London School of Economics. This reflects the judgment of Mr Justice Jackson in the case of JS, which said cryopreservation was not dealt with by criminal law, and was not regulated by the Human Tissue Act 2004. “It is thought that the present situation was not contemplated when the legislation was passed,” he said.
Prof Jackson questioned whether the law would catch up with the science given the “vanishingly small” number of people who opt for the process. The judgment sets no precedent forcing hospitals to facilitate cryopreservation.
Q How much does it cost? A The family of JS have paid £37,000 for the initial cryonics procedure, transport and long-term storage in the US. However, packages can cost up to £200,000, which typically include undertakings to carry out specific research on the individual body.
Q Who does it? A Two companies in the US offer long-term cryopreservation: Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona, and the Cryonics Institute in Michigan. KrioRus, located near Moscow, is thought to be the only facility in Eurasia. Q How commonly is it used?
A It is thought around 2,000 people are signed up for cryonic preservation. About 200 have been frozen upon death.
Q Who has or will use it?
A The first person to be cryonically frozen was James Bedford, an American academic, in 1967. His remains are at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation.
Simon Cowell announced in 2009 that he intended to be “frozen” after his death. Contrary to popular myth, Walt Disney was not cryonically preserved. He expressed an interest, but never formalised it.
Q Why embryos but not bodies?
A Cryopreservation has been successful in storing tiny amounts of tissue such as blood cells, sperm and embryos. To survive ultra-low temperature storage, cells must be drained of water, but the cooling rate has to be closely controlled. The equipment has not yet been designed to control dehydrating and cooling in larger tissue structures. Uncontrolled dehydration is lethal to cells.
Q What happens if the company goes bust? A Some of the early pioneers did exactly that and around 20 bodies had to be buried. The US firms offering cryopreservation have been trading since the 1970s, and have a portfolio of services, including preserving embryos.
Q What are the ethics of it?
A Hospitals
have a duty to make facilities available for patient care, so activity which hinders this could present NHS staff with an ethical dilemma. “They may also be uncomfortable to be seen to be promoting a process which is not backed by scientific opinion,” says Prof Jackson.