Category Archives: Cryonics

Stayin' Alive The Stute Cryonics prepares us now for that future. Cryonics is the preservation of living or recently dead humans or animals for a possible revival in the future. Cryonics focuses on preserving information in the brain, as supporters believe that the ...

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Stayin' Alive - The Stute

The company proposing Australia's first cryonics lab has gained approval to build in Holbrook, southern NSW, and plan to begin freezing and stories bodies next year.

Approval has been granted for the world's second cryonics facility outside the United States to be built in Holbrook.

Building is set to start now the plans have been given the tick by Greater Hume Shire Council and by next year Southern Cryonics plans to begin storing and freezing dead bodies in the expectation that in the future science will be able to bring them back to life.

Company secretary Matt Fisher and his team of four had hoped to unveil a facility in 2014 under the company name Stasis Systems, but ran into difficulties.

In the intervening years, despite there still being no scientific guarantee of revival, Australians had warmed to the idea of cryonics.

"We have had quite a lot of people express interest, perhaps a dozen at this stage, that want to sign up as clients once we are up and running," he said.

A price has not been set for the service but Mr Fisher said whole body preservation would cost $A80,000-$90,000.

The facility will have the capacity to store 40 bodies in 10 specialised stainless steel vessels.

It is hard to get a clear picture of how many people have been cryopreserved to date as there is no system of recording this information. However, there are estimated to be several hundred in the US and Russia where facilities exist.

It has been a long road, but Mr Fisher said it was essential to find an appropriately zoned site for cemetery and mortuary use, in a location with low risk of disaster and bushfire.

Safeguarding the facility was a priority, as was developing a corporate structure to survive as long as the built one.

Greater Hume Council general manager Steven Pinnuck said there were no objections to the development but to satisfy the terms of the approval, Southern Cryonics needed to seek licenses from NSW Health to hold and store remains on site.

"It is certainly a different type of activity. We are quite comfortable with it," he said.

"It's going to be in an industrial area and as it turns out, it will be almost adjacent to the local cemetery so we don't see it as being out of character with the area."

"The patient has to be declared legally dead for any cryopreservation procedures to begin," Mr Fisher said.

"The patient is put in an ice bath and medications are administered to prevent blood clotting."

Bodies are brought down to dry ice temperature (-78.5 Celsius) as a temporary phase.

"Once they get to the facility, Southern Cryonics would take over and bring that down further to liquid nitrogen temperature which is -196 Celsius."

The rule of thumb with cryonics was the faster the better and the colder the better.

The focus of cryonics is to preserve the brain to the highest fidelity so deaths with trauma to the brain or head or degenerative conditions such as dementia were problematic.

Mr Fisher said while there were known concerns which would limit the success of a possible future revival, clients would not be medically assessed by Southern Cryonics.

The elderly and others with illnesses had made inquiries but Mr Fisher said a growing number of young people were keen to know more, particularly as it was soon to be a real third end-of-life option.

Mr Fisher, a software engineer, had his father's brain frozen - or what's called neurally coded - at a facility in Sydney.

His passion for cryonics stems from the assumption that medical technology will improve to the point where people can live "in a healthy physical state in perpetuity", meaning theoretically that life expectancy would become open-ended.

"Anyone who has died in the years leading up to that point is going to miss out on the amazing opportunity of experiencing being fit and healthy for however long that they want to," he said.

"I would like to be on the other side of that transition and want everyone I know and care about to be on the other side of that transition as well."

The story Building set to start on Australia's first cryonics lab first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.

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Building set to start on Australia's first cryonics lab - Cowra Guardian

Freezing and rewarming sections of heart tissue successfully raises hopes for doing the same for the entire organ. Photograph: Sebastian Kaulitzki/Alamy

Scientists have succeeded in cryogenically freezing and rewarming sections of heart tissue for the first time, in an advance that could pave the way for organs to be stored for months or years.

If the technique scales up to work for entire organs and scientists predict it will it could save the lives of thousands who die each year waiting for transplants.

The work is being hailed as a major development in the field of cryopreservation as it marks the first time that scientists have been able to rapidly rewarm large tissue samples without them shattering, cracking or turning to a pulp. The US team overcame this challenge by infusing the tissue with magnetic nanoparticles, which could be excited in a magnetic field, generating a rapid and uniform burst of heat.

Kelvin Brockbank, chief executive officer of Tissue Testing Technologies in Charleston, South Carolina and a co-author, said: It is a huge landmark for me. We can actually see the road ahead for clinical use and getting tissues and organs banked and into patients.

Currently, donor organs such as hearts, livers and kidneys must be transplanted within hours because the cells begin to die as soon as the organs are cut off from a blood supply. As a result, 60% of the hearts and lungs donated for transplantation are discarded each year, because these tissues cannot be kept on ice for longer than four hours.

Recent estimates suggest that if only half of unused organs were successfully transplanted, transplant waiting lists could be eliminated within two to three years. The latest paper has been hailed as a significant step towards this goal.

Mehmet Toner, a professor of bioengineering who is working on cryopreservation at Harvard Medical School, said: Its a major breakthrough. Its going to catalyse a lot of people to try this in their laboratories. Im impressed.

Cryopreservation has been around for decades, but while it works well for red blood cells, sperm and eggs, scientists have come up against a barrier for samples with a volume larger than around one millilitre.

Previously, larger samples have been cooled successfully using a technique known as vitrification, in which the tissue is infused with a mixture of antifreeze-like chemicals and an organ preservation solution. When cooled to below -90C (-130F), the fluid becomes a glass-like solid and prevents damaging ice crystals from forming.

The real problem has been the thawing process. Unless the rewarming occurs rapidly and uniformly, cracks will appear in the tissue and tiny ice crystals suddenly expand, destroying cellular structures.

We can freeze tissue and it looks good, but then we warm it and there are major issues, said Toner.

The latest work scales up cryopreservation from one millilitre to about 50ml, and the scientists said they believe the same strategy is likely to work for larger skin transplants, sections of ovarian tissue and entire organs.

John Bischof, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota and the senior author of the study, said: We have extremely promising results and we believe that were going to be able to do it but we have not yet done it.

Brockbank and colleagues previously attempted and failed to use microwave warming to generate an even thawing. It failed dreadfully due to the development of hotspots in the tissue, he said.

In the latest paper, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the team describe the new nano-warming technique. Pig heart valves and blood vessels were infused with a cryoprotectant solution mixed with iron oxide nanoparticles, coated in silicon to make them biologically inert, and the samples were cooled in liquid nitrogen to -160C (-256F).

For thawing, the sample was placed inside an electromagnetic coil, designed to generate an alternating magnetic field. As the magnetic field is flipped back and forth, the particles jiggle around inside the sample and rapidly and uniformly warm tissue at rates of 100 to 200C per minute, 10 to 100 times faster than previous methods.

In tests of their mechanical and biological properties, the tissues did not show any signs of harm, unlike control samples rewarmed slowly over ice. The researchers were also able to successfully wash away the iron oxide nanoparticles from the sample following the warming although said that further safety testing would be required before the technique could be used in patients.

The team are now testing the technique on rabbit kidneys and human allografts, which are combinations of skin, muscle and blood vessels from donors.

That will be our first trial with human tissues, said Brockbank. If that is successful, we would then progressively move to structures such as the human face for banking and for hands for banking as well as digits.

However, he added that it was difficult to put a timeline on when the developments might have a clinical impact, as this depended on regulatory approval as well as overcoming significant scientific challenges.

The scientists acknowledged that their work may attract interest from the cryonics industry, which promises to freeze the bodies or heads of clients after their death in the hope of bringing them back to life in the future, when medicine has advanced.

There is a certain intellectual connecting of the dots that takes you from the organ to the person... I could see somebody making this argument, said Bischof, but added these ambitions were not science-based as unlike with organs, the person would already be dead when frozen.

Clive Coen, professor of neuroscience at Kings College London, described the technique as ingenious. If the technique can be scaled-up to large organs such as kidneys, the contributions to the field of organ transplantation could be immense, he said. Such painstaking and careful research is to be applauded and must not be confused with wishful thinking about sub-zero storage and subsequent reanimation of a human body, as envisaged by the cryonics industry

Almost 49,000 people in Britain have had to wait for an organ transplant in the past decade and more than 6,000, including 270 children, have died before receiving the transplant they needed, NHS statistics reveal.

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Heart tissue cryogenics breakthrough gives hope for transplant patients - The Guardian

A B.C. man who is challenging the provinces laws on the preservation of the body after death has signed a groundbreaking cryonic contract. Keegan Macintoshis believed to be the first person to sign a deal with a Canadian provider to keep his body in a state of permanent suspension.

The four-page contract between Keegan Macintosh and the Lifespan Society of B.C. is accepted to be the first run through a Canadian has marked with a neighborhood supplier to keep their body in a condition of lasting suspension.

The agreement is the most recent turn in a strange B.C. Preeminent Court confrontation over the regions Cremation, Interment and Funeral Services Act.

Macintoshs claim says the province is the only place on theplanet to fugitive cryonics.

The issue of cryonics increased overall consideration this month when a British judge allowed the last wishes of a 14-year-old who composed a letter before kicking the bucket of malignancy asking the court to let her mom cryogenically safeguard her body.

The decision made room for the young ladys remaining parts to be taken to an office in the U.S. to begin the conservation procedure at a cost of more than $62,000.

Various Canadians have marked cryonic safeguarding manages U.S. suppliers, however, Lifespan president Carrie Wong says the agreement with Macintosh is accepted to be the first of its kind in Canada.

Mac has altered his unique explanation of claim to mirror the marking of an agreement. Wong said the general public is currently holding up to perceive how the Crown reacts.

Wong said, If theyre really not interested, then anyone in B.C. can go into a cryonics arrangement.

As indicated by the terms of the arrangement, Lifespan will supplant Macintoshs blood with a sort of liquid catalyst to avoid ice gems framing when the body is cooled.

The general public additionally consents to suspend Macintoshs remaining parts at ultra-low temperatures.

Consequently, Macintosh will pay $30 a year.

The agreement gives a progression of capabilities around revival, beginning with the finishing date.

However, Lifespan additionally concurs that when in Lifespans best judgment, it is determined that attempting resuscitation is in the best interests of the cryopreserved member, Lifespan shall attempt to resuscitate (Macintosh).

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Keegan Macintosh-British Columbia Guy Signs First Canadian Cryonic Contract - E Canada Now

Eagle-eyed city commuters will have the chance to read a Cheltenham author's book about preserving human life on Monday.

Copies of The Husband Who Refused to Die are being hidden in and around London tube stations as part of the groundbreaking Books On the Underground initiative.

Read: There's a pub in Gloucestershire where you can buy your dog a pint

The debut novel, with its original, and topical, cryonics premise, has had a great response from readers since its launch in December, with one reviewer describing it as 'truly a one-of-a-kind read'.

Andrea Darby, a former journalist who lives near Cheltenham, said: "I'm thrilled to be part of this fantastic initiative and hope that the commuters who find my book will enjoy reading it and pass it on."

Cordelia Oxley, Director of Books on the Underground, said the aim was to get more people reading and sharing books. "Titles are left on seats, benches, station signs and around ticket areas, with finders often keen to share their free discoveries on social media.

"The Book Fairies are excited to be working with Andrea and are looking forward to hiding copies of her amazing book on the London Underground. It's sure to get a big reaction!"

Read: Foo Fighters announce Glastonbury news at secret gig last night

The Husband Who Refused to Die, which Andrea describes as 'a story of love, loss, family and friendship' is about 40-year-old mum Carrie, whose husband Dan dies unexpectedly, just a few years after he revealed his wish to be frozen.

The narrative focuses on the difficult repercussions of this wish for Carrie and her teenage daughter, not least an intrusive media, an interfering sister-in-law and a mystery person with a serious grudge.

The book is available from Waterstones in Cheltenham and Gloucester, the Suffolk Anthology bookshop, as well as from Amazon, WHSmith and other online retailers.

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Going Underground: Cheltenham author's book about cryonics to be used in groundbreaking scheme - Gloucestershire Live

New Delhi: Of late, the science of cryonics seems to have captivated the hearts of scientists and the public alike with some people now opting for cryopreservation after their deaths.

Cryonics is the practice or technique of deep-freezing the bodies of those who have died of a disease, in the hope of a future cure.

In a latest, an author from Scotland has started paying a research institute to preserve his brain cryogenically after his death.

As per reports, DJ MacLennan has been paying 50 pounds ( appriximately Rs 4,000) a month for the past decade to Alcor Institute in Arizona, USA, to preserve his brain in the hope that he can one day be brought back to life.

MacLennan, who lives on the Isle of Skye, has told the institute that when he dies he wants the team of volunteers to fill his body with anti-freezing liquid before plunging it into ice water. His body will then be wrapped in a polyethylene, submerged in alcohol and lowered into ice before being shipped to Arizona. The head will then be removed and frozen in liquid nitrogen before being stored.

According to MacLennan, if organs can be donated and aren't wasted anymore, brains should definitely not be wasted, instead it's the important part to store.

While the full-body procedure costs 75,000 pounds, the author from Skye, has opted for the 40,000 pounds brain freeze.

In November last year, a 14-year old girl who died of cancer became the first child to be cryogenically frozen after death in the UK.

The procedure was carried out after winning a landmark court case shortly before her death. She had written a heartbreaking letter to a judge explaining that she wanted a chance to live longer after suffering from a rare form of deadly cancer.

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Cryonics This Scottish author pays 50 pounds a month to preserve his brain after death - Zee News

On January 12, 1967, psychology professor James Bedford died due to cancer-related natural causes. Within hours, a team of scientists filled his veins with antifreeze. They packed his body in a container full of dry ice, and in so doing made Bedford the first man ever frozen alive in the name ofwell, if not science, something that aspired to be science one day: cryonics.

On December 23rd, 2009, at 4 a.m., I listened to my neighbors play Forever Young for the fortieth time in a row. Either the partygoers had either left or the DJ had died, and any attendees were either passed out or too blitzed to notice. The song played on repeat:

Forever young, I want to be Forever young.

I aged 10 years that night, while Bedfordtucked away in a fresh liquid nitrogen bath that came complementary with his 1991 inspectionremained immortal.

What is Cryonics, for Crying out Loud? Fifty years have passed since Bedford volunteered to become the first cryogenically frozen man. And while cultural depictions sporadically crop upthink Austin Powers, Futurama and yes, Mel Gibsonin Forever Youngcryonics is often thought to belong more to the realm of science fiction than science, and to put an even finer point on it, an escapist fiction that eludes actionable reality.

Yet cryonics offers grounds just as fertile for ethics as they do the imagination. Just think: people wage fierce wars about when life begins. Cryonics twists, turns and flips that argument around to become a deeper meditation on the moment that life ends.

So when does it?

When a Body Becomes a Patient The Alcor Life Extension Foundation which preserved Bedford describes cryonics as an effort to save lives by using temperatures so cold that a person beyond help by todays medicine can be preserved for decades or centuries until a future medical technology can restore that person to full health. The Foundation tellingly describes its members as patientsnot bodies. The dewars are not coffins, they are the temporary resting place for people who will one day wake up.

Michael Hendrix, neuroscientist and assistant professor of biology at McGill University, describes how the future of cryonics rests upon the promise of new technologies in neuroscience, particularly recent work in connectomicsa field that maps the connections between neurons a detailed map of neural connections could be enough to restore a persons mind, memories and personality by uploading it into a computer simulation.

In other words, cryonics claims that a cryogenically frozen person is not dead. He or she is merely on pause, similar to the way a video game character wont age while the player fiddles through the menu screen. The cycle of life rests upon the ability of scientistsand technologyto catch up to an idea born centuries before its time.

And as far as the science of resuscitation, cryonics does not actually rely upon the preservation of the entire body (as the choice of some people to have just their heads frozen, notably MLB player Ted Williams, testifies to), but upon the ability to map out the neurological connections between the brain, lift that map and recreate it in another bodypossibly a robot, possibly something scientists and dreamers havent yet conceived.

The Grounds for Debate Arguments against cryonics often hinge upon two main points. The first is that at best, the ethical implications of the procedure show a Labradors level of devotion to the promise of science. At worst, they play upon the emotions (and pocketbooks) of the bereaved survivors, who hold out false hope for the resuscitation of their loved one, possibly derailing and even deranging the cycles of the grieving process. The second rawand undeniablefact is that the technology for making a frozen person reenter society as a whole, living human being simply does not exist.

As for arguments for it? The most simple, powerful argument of all: immortality.

In 2014, the total count of cyropreserved bodies reached 250. An estimated 1,500 people total had made arrangements for cryopreservation after their legal death. The New York Times cites nonreligious white males as the main partakers, outdoing females by a ratio of three to one. As the worlds first volunteer, Bedford received a freebie, but most cyropreservation costs at least $80,000. A Russian company, KioRus, boasts the steal at $12,000 a headliterally speaking. But costs all but disappear in the face of a successful experiment. Say someone pays $80,000 now to rejoin the living 200 years later? Forget about calculating inflation differences.

No matter what side of cryonics one comes down uponand science offers arguments for botha central idea remains, both chilling and mesmerizing, depending upon the way its turned. A successful cyropreservation would entail rebirthbut into a world wholly different than the one left behind. If James Bedford came back tomorrow, could he handle the emotionalnot to mention mentaltribulations of adjusting to a world that moved on without him? Would the forever young experience drone on like the song on that December night, an individual sentenced to the eternal return of the same song, Existence?

After my own encounter with Forever YoungI certainly hope not.

Elisia Guerena is a Brooklyn based writer, who writes about tech, travel, feminism, and anything related to inner or outer space.

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50 Years Frozen: Cryonics Today - Paste Magazine

DJ Maclennan is hoping for a good death. When the time comes, the Isle of Skye writer wants to be surrounded not just by his family, but by the emergency volunteer stand-by team from Cyronics UK.

Since 2007, he has been paying 50 a month to the Alcor Institute in the town of Scottsdale, Arizona. For that they will 'cryopreserve' his head (it costs significantly more to keep the whole body) in a tank of liquid nitrogen, keeping it there, the company promises on their website, for decades or centuries until a future medical technology can restore that person to full health.

All going well, within ten minutes of MacLennan breathing his last, that team, made up of enthusiastic amateurs, none of whom have professional medical training, will take control of his body. Theyll start by giving the cadaver oxygen, and chest compressions before placing it in an ice bath.

Then they administer drugs to stabilise biological systems and prevent clotting and brain damage through cell destruction. Once thats done they remove the corpse to their mortuary, cut open carotid arteries jugular veins and replace the blood with an an antifreeze solution. Within 24 hours of death, the body must have been cooled to at least -20C. Then, and only then is it ready to transport over to Americas west coast, where the head will be removed.

The problem for MacLennan is he needs the NHS and the Procurator Fiscal to let this happen, and right now that looks unlikely. Bodies in Scotland cant be released to family until theres a death certificate, and every death certificate needs a cause of death.

If that death is unexplained or sudden, then it gets reported to the Procurator Fiscal who takes over legal responsibility for the body until a cause can identified.

That often requires time or even a post-mortem, both of which make cryopreservation impossible, and the 40,000 or so MacLennan will have paid to Alcor over his lifetime would be for nothing.

Unfortunately, while we will always be sympathetic to requests by members of a family, this has to be balanced with the need for an independent and thorough investigation and a post mortem examination will sometimes still be required, the Procurator Fiscal tells the Sunday Herald.

None of Scotlands 14 health boards, or the NHS National Services Scotland, have any policy or guidelines on cryonics. Some of them are even openly hostile to the idea. NHS Western Isles said they would not facilitate volunteer medics, who may have no medical experience to operate on a dead person, regardless if this was the wish of the dead person.

The Scottish Government also has no policy, and say theyre waiting on the results of an information gathering exercise undertaken by the Human Tissue Authority, who were mobilised into action in the wake of last years high profile legal row between the parents of JS, the 14 year old dying of cancer who wanted her body to be cryopreserved.

Mr Justice Peter Jackson, who sat on that case, suggested there needed to be proper regulation of cryonic preservation in this country if it is to happen in future.

That was in part a response to fears expressed by JSs doctors over the Cryonics UK standby team. The medical staff said the volunteers were under-equipped and disorganised. The groups ambulance had broken down, and was replaced by a van.

The Human Tissue Authority will in the next few months produce two pieces of guidance, one for medical professionals and one for members of the public. Though they werent willing to tell the Sunday Herald what was in those guidelines.

Given this is a procedure thats been going on for 30 years it's surprising that there's no policy for it in the place in the UK, MacLennan says.

He is happy to talk about cryonics, and has written books on the process, as part of an attempt to normalise it a little bit and take the Frankenstein factor out if it.

Cryonics is potentially exponential technology, he argues. When people see the price coming down there'll come a point when they see a benefit. The cost will be finite and the benefit will potentially be infinite, because if it works the benefits are potentially infinite.

But this is currently a niche issue. No one is sure, but it seems there are around 100 people in the UK who have opted for cryopreservation.

In Scotland, the NHS and the Procurator Fiscal have yet to deal with any cases of Cryonics.

Professor Clive Coen from Kings College London believes there should be a ban on the marketing of cryonics, saying the idea of preserving a whole body was ridiculous and a whole brain only slightly less ridiculous.

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Head Case Scottish writer: 'Decapitate me after death, freeze my head, and I let me live again centuries from now' - Herald Scotland

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Florida's First Body-Freezing Cryonics Facility Now Open In Miami CBS Local It's Florida's first body-freezing cryonics facility in the hopes of freezing individuals and then bringing them back to life in a few decades. Is it eternal life or science fiction? It's called Osiris, who is the Egyptian God of the afterlife, and it ...

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Florida's First Body-Freezing Cryonics Facility Now Open In Miami - CBS Local

On a bright Sunday afternoon, in a colourfully decorated scout hut on the outskirts of Sheffieldin Britain, a dozen or so people are clustered around a table, on which lies a plastic human torso. It looks like the kind of prop that might be used by trainee doctors, the chest cut away to reveal its white ribcage and pink intestines.

But these are not doctors they are members of Cryonics UK, the charity that cryogenically froze a 14-year-old girl who won the right to have her body preserved after her death from cancer, and whose heartbreaking landmark court case was reported this week.

Cryonics UK claims to be the only group in Britain working in the legal but unregulated field of cryonic preservation where a person is frozen in time after their death, and then woken up at a point when scientific advances allow them to be revived and cured of whatever caused them to die. The not-for-profit organization charges CAD$25,000to freeze and transport a body to storage facilities in America or Russia.

Today, members of the group, many of whom have themselves paid to be frozen after death, are rehearsing the preservation process. They watch closely as a clear solution is pumped through plastic tubes snaking around the torso a biological version of antifreeze which prevents the bodys cells from shattering when its core temperature is lowered.

The 14-year-old, known only as JS, was the tenth Briton to undergo the procedure, and the first British child. Her mother had supported her wish to be cryogenically frozen, but her father had opposed it, and so the girl had asked a High Court judge to intervene. In a letter to Justice Peter Jackson, she wrote: I dont want to die but I know I am going toI want to live and live longer I want to have this chance. She learned that the judge had granted her wish shortly before her death in a London hospital on October 17. With money raised by her maternal grandparents, the girl made arrangements with the Cryonics Institute, a cryopreservation company based in Michigan; Cryonics UK prepared her body and arranged for it to be flown there.

Interest in cryo-preservation is growing. Across the world, around 2,000 people are thought to be signed up for cryonic preservation, with about 200 already frozen after death.

A majority are from the scientific community, says Marji Klima, of Alcor, another cryopreservation company in the U.S. Many people understand the direction science is heading.

In Sheffield, Mike Carter, a 71-year-old retired geotechnical engineer who has paid $120,000 from his savings to have his head preserved after he dies. (Many cryonicists choose this option, the idea being that the brain contains all the vital matter, and in the future can be attached to a new body or robot.)

He says he found the idea of death upsetting from an early age. I decided that, despite what was drummed into me at school, there was no evidence for either a god or an immortal soul. My conclusion was therefore that death was followed by oblivion.

In 2008, after reading about cryogenics in a science fiction novel, he looked online, almost on a whim, to see whether it was actually possible, and discovered the existence of storage facilities abroad and the Cryonics UK community.

While accepting that the idea of reanimation was something of a long shot, he says my mantra was, and still is, what have I got to lose?

He says his two daughters are all right with it, and while his wife is not happy, I support her in her views and shes agreed to support me in mine.

David Farlow, a thoughtful 34-year-old property manager from west London, is also at the rehearsal.

Having come across the concept as a computer science student at Kings College London, Farlow went to his first training session in 2008, which became the first of many. His friends, he says, understand once hes explained the idea. His family does not share his interest, but he wishes they did. If I was going to live longer, then Id like my family members to be there, he says.

Critics of cryopreservation say, variously, that it offers false hope in a process not backed by science, that it is unethical to live longer than ones natural lifespan, and even, perhaps prematurely, that it could exacerbate the worlds overpopulation problem.

Aside from the many scientific hurdles that would need to be overcome to resurrect frozen humans, the cost of preservation is prohibitively high, with the most expensive packages at $270,000.

However, life insurance packages are now available which allow you to spread the costs out, an option that Farlow is considering. An office in Devon called Unusual Risks Mortgage & Insurance Services helps would-be cryonicists route their life insurance to cryogenics securing, as it were, a chance at a second life in exchange for down-payments of $75 amonth.

Its like being on a plane, and they announce that its going to crash, and theres nothing you can do.They offer you a parachute, and theres only a small chance of it working, but would you take it?

In the U.S., Alcor and the Cryonics Institute employ trained personnel to carry out the urgent preparatory work on a body before it is placed in storage. In the UK, this is done by volunteers who undergo training in sessions. The organization describes itself as a mutual assistance group and some who sign up to be frozen also train to be volunteers. Cryonics UK says it has around 50 members on call to help with preservation. Their first job is to administer chest compressions, as soon as is feasible from the moment of death, to supply blood and oxygen to the brain to prevent the cells from deteriorating. The body is then packed in ice and transported to a cryonics facility where an embalmer makes an incision in the corpses neck and gradually replaces the blood with a cryoprotectant solution, using a cannula like the one on the table in the scout hut, with a cryoprotectant solution.

Finally, sealed in a well-insulated box packed with dry ice, the body is flown to the storage facility where it is preserved in liquid nitrogen at -196 C.

Mike Carter has now helped to carry out three cryopreservations, including one on a terminally ill person he had got to know through Cryonics UK.

The first time, he says, he was nervous as hell but in the end it went pretty well. Once, he says, there was a situation where the family members were uneasy with it, but they still supported it because they knew it was the persons wishes.

Scientists remain sceptical of the practice of cryonics. This week, it was revealed that doctors at the hospital where JS was cared for felt deep unease about her decision and accused Cryonics UK of being underequipped and disorganized in its handling of her body after she died last month.

In a statement, Cryonics UK said: We always seek to negotiate before acting and our protocols were carried out with the permission of the hospital. A successful outcome was achieved as a result of the determination of the family and their legal representation and the resourcefulness of Cryonics UK.

It said that better regulations of cryopreservation would be likely to lead to more people signing up.

For many, the notion of bringing humans back to life remains very much the stuff of science fiction. But the extraordinary case of JS sheds light on the small, but growing handful of people willing to take a leap of faith.

Its like being on a plane, and they announce that its going to crash, and theres nothing you can do, says Peter Farlow. They offer you a parachute, and theres only a small chance of it working, but would you take it?

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Inside the strange world of cryonics, where people are ...