The False Hope of Cryonics

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The False Hope of Cryonics

Have you ever thought about living one hundred years or more from now? If current beliefs are proven to be possible it may be a possibility in the future. Alcor, a life extension foundation, claims that Cryonics may make it possible for people who die to be revived in the future. Just think about it, you could get to see how present problems were solved in the future. The only catch is that Cryonics may cause more problems than it can solve in the future.

Cryonics is the process of freezing body parts and organs for future use. At this time they are doing whole body and neurosuspensions. As soon as heartbeat and breathing in a member who has paid for this procedure cease, a transport team from Alcor takes over the care of the patient. Circulation and breathing are artificially restored and the patient is cooled and transported to Alcor's facilities. The patient is treated with drugs to minimize freezing injury and is then further cooled to the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (-320°F, -196°C) (Alcor, 1). Neurosuspensions are the freezing of the human head and brain. The reason for doing this is because it is much cheaper and they feel that all other body parts are replaceable by transplant. Alcor charges $50,000 for neurosuspensions and $120,000 for whole body suspensions (Alcor, 27).

The first problem to consider is our current and possible future population problems. Alcor claims that it is impossible for over population to occur because the earth is nowhere near its limits for safely and comfortably supporting life (Alcor, 52). If this is true why does China currently only allow couples to have two children and require that they obtain a license before doing so rather than simply allowing them to have as many as they want? I guess what I am trying to say is that areas of this world already are overpopulated. There are 23,000,000 people in the United States age sixty-five or over (Doherty, 73). If every person age sixty-five and over were to be frozen then restored at a future date and this kept adding up over each year it would seem obvious that when and if the technology ever came where these people could be revived that there would definitely be an overpopulation.

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