Research Paper: Cryonics

Christian Cristurean Mrs. Liftson English, 4B 17 November, 2009 Research Paper: The major reason that cryonics is not more favorably viewed in the medical community is relatively easy to explain. Medicine relies on clinical trials. Put more simply, if someone proposes a technique for saving lives, the response is â€Å"Try it and see if it works. † Methods that have not been verified by clinical trials are called â€Å"experimental,† while methods that have been tried and failed are rejected; Cryonics falls under this category. While some still believe Cryonics will preserve human life and restore health; I believe we can put are efforts and money into today’s medical field that we know for a fact will work. Does Cryonics really work? In my opinion, by my research I did; â€Å"No†. As asked in the article of (Cryonics). They don’t have a yes or no answer but are sure to jump ahead to the distant future. As stated by them when asked if Cryonics really works? They answered the question by this statement; â€Å"The clinical trials are in progress. Come back in a century and we'll give you a reliable answer. † (Cryonics) With no evidence that Cryonics will work, it leads me to say that it’s a waist of time and money. Costs of cryonics vary greatly, ranging from $28,000 for cryopreservation by the Cryonics Institute, to $155,000 for whole body cryopreservation for the American Cryonics Society’s most expensive plan. Alcor’s whole body preservation is priced at $150,000 (or $80,000 for neuropreservation of the head alone) plus a ~$500 annual membership fee during life by Alcor. After payment of an initiaton fee, ACS full members pay an annual fee of $300 currently. To some extent these cost differences reflect differences in how fees are quoted. The Cryonics Institute fee doesn’t include â€Å"standby† (a team that begins procedures at bedside), transportation costs, or funeral director expenses outside of Michigan, which must be purchased as extras. CI Members wanting Standby and Transport from cryonics professionals can contract for additional payment to the Florida-based company Suspended Animation, Inc. It has been claimed that if technologies for general molecular analysis and repair are ever developed, then theoretically any damaged body could be â€Å"revived. † Survival would then depend on whether preserved brain information was sufficient to permit restoration of all or part of the personal identity of the original person, with amnesia being the final dividing line between life and death. The justification for the actual practice of cryonics is unclear, given present limitations of preservation technology. Currently cells, tissues, blood vessels, and some small animal organs can be reversibly cryopreserved. Some very small animals, such as water bears, can naturally survive preservation at cryogenic temperatures. Wood frogs can survive for a few months in a partially frozen state a few degrees below freezing, but this is not true cryopreservation. Cryonics advocates counter that demonstrably reversible preservation is not necessary to achieve the present-day goal of cryonics, which is preservation of basic brain information that encodes memory and personal identity. There is good reason to believe that current cryonics procedures can preserve the anatomical basis of mind. Proponents claim preservation of this information is sufficient to prevent information-theoretic death until future repairs might be possible. While cryonics is sometimes suspected of being greatly profitable, the high expenses of doing cryonics are well documented. The expenses are comparable to major transplant surgeries. The largest single expense, especially for whole body cases, is the money that must be set aside to generate interest to pay for maintenance in perpetuity. There isn’t enough scientific information to support this belief. With such economically times as now, it leads me to say that money must not be waisted on such gambles. Until proven to work, Cryonics should be dismissed as an idea of immortality imagination instead of future Medical Science. Work Cited Cryonics. † Http://www. free-articles-zone. com. Publishing Free Articles Zone, 15 July 2005. Web. 14 Nov. 2009. . (Cryonics)