Each year 2.5 million people will die in America. Roughly 1.7 million of these deaths are by way of disease— mostly cancer, respiratory disease, and heart disease.2 Although these problems are highly preventable with the right lifestyle, most people seemingly do not take action until it is too late. There is no real cure for these diseases, and the medicines to treat them are not perfect. Our mortality is the only thing guaranteed in short lives. We cannot generally choose how we go, and that is a fact we have held to be true since the dawn of man. This tribulation, however, might soon be a problem of the past.
Cryogenics isn’t a new idea. It has been the lure of science fiction for decades, and hasn’t been much more than the plot of the cartoon Futurama; that is until recently. Cryogenics have been a new focus of scientists across the globe in recent times, and may be humanity’s new saving grace. Using techniques that cause vitrification (the process of water being super-cooled with no ice formation) with the help of chemicals called cryoprotectants, it is theoretically possible for life to be frozen for an indefinite amount of time and restored to fully functional at a later date. Though not in existence yet, the emergence of nanobots that could help repair cell structure after freezing are possibly not too far down the road. Someday you and I might be able to hop into a freezer, and wake up one hundred years later. Through this technology, humanity might have millions of people that choose to freeze themselves, but this all seems so far off, right? Perhaps not; scientists have been doing this for years to various subjects. For decades, fertility specialists have been freezing embryos for implantation at a later date, the longest having been successfully brought full term after a 17-year stint in a freezer. We have even found viable DNA in frozen carcasses of animals that have long been extinct. How does this transition to full human trials, you ask? Most of us have all heard the rumor that Walt Disney has his head preserved in a vault, but most call this nonsense. There are actually multiple locations in the USA that offer whole body or brain cryogenic freezing. One company, ALCOR, offers neuro freezing for $70,000, and whole body for $200,000.3 These fees include everything from the user’s spot to the standby time required. One young woman made headlines recently after having a successful fundraising campaign. Kim Suozzi was battling brain cancer and lost her life recently at age 23. Her last few months were spent campaigning for funds to grant herself her dying wish: to be cryogenically frozen. After passing, her body was taken in by a cryogenics company for long-term storage. Perhaps in a few decades she will be reanimated and cured of her cancer.