Deep-freezing the dead: Growing interest in Asia for cryonics with rising population and incomes

EXPENSIVE PROCEDURE TO PRESERVE BODIES

On the rising interest, Cryonics Institute president Dennis Kowalski said: “Many people choose cryonics because in a way, you have almost nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

“There is no guarantee that cryonics will ultimately work as planned, but many astute people reason that if you don’t sign up for this clinical trial and instead you get buried or cremated that you are absolutely guaranteed to stay dead forever. 

“People are choosing to take the chance that the clinical trial or experiment that is cryonics will work.”

Noting how cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillators are now routinely used to “raise” the dead, Mr Kowalski, a firefighter and a paramedic, said: “So this makes sense. Impossible has become routine.”

In cryonics facilities, bodies are generally stored inside giant stainless steel containers head-down in liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius. 

Water in the body is replaced with cryoprotectant, a type of medical-grade antifreeze that helps prevent ice crystals forming and damaging the body’s cells.

In this state, a body can be preserved for decades, experts said.

However, the procedure does not come cheap.

It takes about US$200,000 on average to freeze the whole body, but frugal futurists can preserve just their brains for US$80,000.

“It’s an expensive product. I mean today… everyone wants a house, everyone wants a car,” said Mr Brown, adding that funding methods for membership include the use of life insurance.

“So we want to try and make it into a third must-have item. So I mean, we want to make it mainstream. Life insurance is a tool.”