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          Cryonics
      Frequently Asked Question List
    Section 1: Introduction and Index
                Last Modified Thu Jul  1 09:48:32 1993

Copyright 1993 by Tim Freeman.  See the end of Section 1 for
restrictions on redistribution.

Cryonic suspension is an experimental procedure whereby patients who
can no longer be kept alive with today's medical abilities are
preserved at low temperatures for treatment in the future.

Send comments about this list to Tim Freeman ([e-mail]).  The
words "I" and "me" in these answers refer to opinions of Tim Freeman,
which may or may not be shared by others.

There is much information available as cryomsg's.  You can fetch
cryomsg "n" by sending mail to [e-mail] or to
[e-mail] with the subject line "CRYOMSG n".  You can get
a current version of this entire FAQ list by fetching cryomsg "0018".
You can get a current version of section "n" of this FAQ list by
fetching cryomsg "0018.n".  Also, all cryomsg's referenced in this FAQ
(and a few others) are available by anonymous FTP from pop.cs.cmu.edu,
directory "/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/tsf/Public-Mail/cryonics/archive".
There is more about this in the answer to question 8-2.

Many FAQs, including this one, are available via anonymous FTP from
rtfm.mit.edu in the directory "pub/usenet/news.answers".  When a FAQ is
presented as a netnews post, the filename for it on rtfm appears in
the Archive-name line at the top of the post.  The parts of this FAQ
are archived as "cryonics-faq/part*.Z".

Readers with access to NCSA Mosaic or other World Wide Web browsers will be
able to read the hypertext version of this FAQ.  The initial URL to
start with is
"file://pop.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/tsf/Public-Mail/cryonics/html/overview.html"


In this list, the acronym "CRFT" stands for "Cryonics: Reaching for
Tomorrow", which is available from Alcor.  The address of Alcor is
part of the answer to Question 6-4.

Much more is said about Alcor than any other cryonics organization
in this list.  There are several reasons for this.  First, Alcor is
the largest, and it gets the most attention.  Second, I am an
Alcor member, and most of the reference material I have on hand was
written by Alcor.  I invite people more familiar with other
organizations to contribute answers to these questions.

This FAQ list needs a new maintainer.  Cryomsg 1242 describes what the
new maintainer would need to do to take over the job.  If you are
interested, send me mail.

This FAQ list would also benefit from a detailed comparison of the
various cryonics organizations.  My thoughts about what could go into
this are in cryomsg 1241.  If you want to volunteer to write this
answer, send me mail.

This FAQ list has these sections:

1. Introduction and Index
2. Science/Technology               -- Is cryonics feasible?
3. Philosophy/Religion              -- Is cryonics good?
4. Controversy surrounding Cryonics -- Dora Kent, Cryobiologists, Donaldson
5. Neurosuspension                  -- Whether to take your body with you.
6. Suspension Arrangements          -- The organizations that exist.
7. Cost of Cryonics                 -- Why does cryonics cost so much?
8. Communications                   -- How to find out more.
9. Glossary & Acknowledgements      -- Important and unimportant jargon.

The following questions are covered.  Questions marked with a "*"
are not yet answered.

                          2. Science/Technology
2-1.  Has anyone been successfully revived from cryonic suspension?
2-2.  What advances need to be made before people frozen now have a chance
      of being revived?
2-3.  Is there any government or university supported research on cryonics
      specifically?
2-4.  What is the procedure for freezing people?
2-5.  How can one get a more detailed account of a suspension?
2-6.  Is there damage from oxygen deprivation during a suspension?
2-7.  Do memories require an ongoing metabolism to support them, like RAM in
      a computer?
2-8.  If these frozen people are revived, will it be easy to cure them of
      whatever disease made them clinically die?
2-9.  If I'm frozen and then successfully revived, will my body be old?
2-10. Why is freezing in liquid nitrogen better than other kinds of
      preservation, such as drying or embalming?
2-11. What is vitrification?
2-12. How is the baboon? Did it live? Any brain damage?
2-13. Who has successfully kept dogs cold for hours?  Did they survive? Any
      brain damage?
2-14. Who froze the roundworms?  What happened?
2-15. What were the circumstances under which cat brains produced
      normal-looking brain waves after being frozen?
2-16. Would it be possible to use some improvement on modern CAT or MRI
      scanners to infer enough about the structure of a brain to reconstruct
      the memories and personality?
2-17. Does background radiation cause significant damage to suspendees?

                         3. Philosophy/Religion
3-1.  Are the frozen people dead?
3-2.  Is cryonics suicide?
3-3.  What about overpopulation?
3-4.  When are two people the same person?
3-5.  What if they repair the freezing damage (and install a new body, in
      the case of neurosuspension), and the resulting being acts and talks
      as though it were me, but it isn't really me?
3-6.  What would happen if people didn't age after reaching adulthood?
3-7.  Would it be better to be suspended now or later?
3-8.  Why would anyone be revived?
3-9.  Is there a conflict between cryonics and religious beliefs?
3-10. Is attempting to extend life consistent with Christianity?

                   4. Controversy surrounding Cryonics
4-1.  Why do cryobiologists have such a low opinion of cryonics?  How did this
      start, and how does it continue?
4-2.  Who made the statement about reviving a frozen person being similar to
      reconstructing the cow from hamburger?
4-3.  What was the Dora Kent case?
4-4.  What about that fellow in the news with the brain tumor?

                           5. Neurosuspension
5-1.  What are the pros and cons of neurosuspension (only freezing the head)?
5-2.  How many people have chosen neurosuspension over whole-body
      suspension? (This question has only a partial answer.)

                       6. Suspension Arrangements
6-1.  How many people are frozen right now?
6-2.  How is suspension paid for?
6-3.  How will reanimation be paid for?
6-4.  What suspension organizations are available?
6-5.  How can I get financial statements for the various organizations to
      evaluate their stability?
6-6.  How hard will these people work to freeze me?
6-7.  What obligations do the suspension organizations have to the people
      they have suspended?  Will they pay for revival and rehabilitation?
6-8.  How long has this been going on?
6-9.  How much of the resources of the cryonics organizations are reserved
      for reviving patients?
6-10. How can uncooperative relatives derail suspensions?
6-11. How should I deal with relatives who will not cooperate with my
      suspension arrangements?
6-12. What if my spouse does not approve of my suspension
      arrangements?
6-13. What practical things can I do to increase my chances
      of being suspended well?
6-14. How can I pay for my own revival and rehabilitation, and keep some of
      my financial assets after revival?
6-15. Is Walt Disney frozen?

                           7. Cost of Cryonics
7-1.  Why does cryonics cost so much?
7-2.  Is anyone getting rich from cryonics?  What are the salaries at these
      organizations like?
7-3. *How do cryonics organizations invest their money to last for the long
      term?

                            8. Communications
8-1.  How can I get more information?
8-2.  What is a cryomsg?  How do I fetch one?


Copyright 1993 by Tim Freeman

You may freely distribute unmodified copies of this entire FAQ list,
provided that you do not work for any cryonics organization or
suspension services provider.

You may also distribute modified copies of this FAQ list, provided
that you also do the following:

1) Include instructions saying how to get a current copy of the full
FAQ list.

2) If you use text from this FAQ that is attributed as a direct quote
from another source, get permission from the author of the other
source before you use their text.




*****************************************************************
          Cryonics
      Frequently Asked Question List
      Section 2: Science/Technology
  Last Modified Mon Jun 21 14:05:59 1993

(You can fetch cryomsg "n" by sending mail to [e-mail] or
to [e-mail] with the subject line "CRYOMSG n".  There is
more about this in the answer to question 8-2.  The index
to this FAQ list is cryomsg "0018.1".  )

Copyright 1993 by Tim Freeman.  See the end of Section 1 for
restrictions on redistribution.

2-1.  Has anyone been successfully revived from cryonic suspension?

No.  Fortunately, successful cryonics is a two-step process:
  (1) put the patient in suspension and
  (2) revive the patient from suspension.
For cryonic suspension to be worthwhile, we only need to master
step (1) right now and have reasonable expectation that we might
master step (2) later.

2-2.  What advances need to be made before people frozen now have a chance
      of being revived?

A number of advances in basic areas of research such as medicine,
microbiology, engineering, and information sciences are required
before any serious attempt can be made to revive patients suspended
with current technology.  Nanotechnology, the design and fabrication
of molecular scale machines, is an emerging technology that will
probably be both necessary and sufficient for revival.

2-3.  Is there any government or university supported research on cryonics
      specifically?

There was suspended animation research sponsored by NASA as late as
1979 at the University of Louisville, Kentucky.

2-4.  What is the procedure for freezing people?

Read an account of a cryonic suspension.  Briefly, circulation is
restored by CPR, and the blood is replaced by other substances that
prevent blood clots and bacteria growth and decrease freezing damage.
As this happens the body is cooled as quickly as possible to slightly
above 0 degrees C. After the blood has been replaced the body is
cooled more slowly to liquid nitrogen temperatures.

2-5.  How can one get a more detailed account of a suspension?

Cryomsgs 601 and 602 are The Transport of Patient A-1312 (28K bytes)
and cryomsgs 696, 697, and 698 are The Neurosuspension of Patient
A-1260. (35K bytes).  These messages give a first-hand description
of the initial stages of two suspensions.

2-6.  Is there damage from oxygen deprivation during a suspension?

Not if the suspension happens under good circumstances.  One of the
big goals of the suspension procedure is to get the heart and lung
resuscitation (HLR) machine onto the patient as soon as possible, to
prevent this damage.  The barbiturates they give reduce brain
metabolism, as does cooling.  In a well done suspension, the damage
from oxygen deprivation should be minor.  In a more perfect world, the
suspension procedure would be able to start before legal death, which
should reduce the damage from ischemia even more because there
wouldn't be any time when the heart is stopped and the body is warm.

2-7.  Do memories require an ongoing metabolism to support them, like RAM in
      a computer?

No.  Here's a relevant quote, supplied by Brian Wowk:

        We know that secondary memory does not depend on continued
        activity of the nervous system, because the brain can be
        *totally inactivated* (emphasis added) by cooling, by general
        anesthesia, by hypoxia, by ischemia, or by any method and yet
        secondary memories that have been previously stored are still
        retained when the brain becomes active once again.

Textbook of Medical Physiology, Arthur C. Guyton, W.B. Saunders
Company, Philadelphia, 1986

Thomas Donaldson says that brain waves of supercooled small animals
have been measured, and there are none, even though the animals still
have their memories after they are rewarmed.  He cites AU Smith, ed.
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF FREEZING AND SUPERCOOLING, London, 1961; article
by Aubrey Smith herself, "Revival of mammals from body temperatures
below zero", pp. 304-368.

2-8.  If these frozen people are revived, will it be easy to cure them of
      whatever disease made them clinically die?

Repairing the freezing damage looks much harder than curing any
existing disease, so if revival is possible then curing the disease
ought to be trivial.  This doesn't include diseases that lose
information in the brain, such as Alzheimer's, mental retardation, or
brain tumors; in these cases, even if the disease were cured and the
person revived, the problem of replacing the lost information looks
hard.

2-9.  If I'm frozen and then successfully revived, will my body be old?

No.  Old age is a disease that ought to be easier to cure than the
freezing damage.

2-10. Why is freezing in liquid nitrogen better than other kinds of
      preservation, such as drying or embalming?

Straightforward chemical arguments lead to the conclusion that
significant amounts of decomposition do not occur at liquid nitrogen
temperatures.  (See Hugh Hixon's article "How Cold Is Cold Enough?"
from *Cryonics* magazine, January, 1985, or fetch cryomsg 0015.)
This isn't true for either dried or embalmed tissue kept at room
temperature.

Also, Alcor and Trans Time have done experiments with dogs that
demonstrate that part of the suspension process does not cause
damage.  Dogs have been anesthetized, perfused with a blood
substitute, and cooled to slightly above 0 C for several hours.
After rewarming and replacing the original blood, the dogs revived
with no obvious brain damage. Experiments like this cannot be done
with drying or embalming.

Another option that may become possible in the future is vitrification.

2-11. What is vitrification?

(Next paragraph copied from CRYOMSG 6 posted by Kevin Brown)

The cover article of the Aug. 29, 1987 issue of Science News describes
vitrification, which achieves cooling to a glassy state without the
water crystallizing into ice.  The advantage of this is that the cells
do not suffer the mechanical damage from the crystallization.  The
main disadvantage is that the concentration of cryoprotectants
required to achieve this is toxic.  It is also, currently, a
technically difficult and expensive process requiring computer control
of cooling rates, perfusion, etc.  The March, 1988 issue of Cryonics
magazine ("The Future of Medicine", Part 2 of 2) suggests that
vitrification may not be needed for ordinary organ banking, since
other, cheaper methods may be good enough.  For tissues and cells,
though, it has a lot of promise for the commercial market.  Thus,
commercial research into vitrification may stop short of what is
needed for making it viable for preservation of large organs or whole
bodies required by cryonics.

2-12. How is the baboon? Did it live? Any brain damage?

According to Art Quaife as of 14 Jul 92, the baboon is well and has
no signs of brain damage.

This is part of what CRYOMSG 865 posted by Art Quaife has to say about
the baboon:

Berkeley, California, May 29 1992.  BioTime Inc. has, for the first
time, successfully revived a baboon following a procedure in which
the animal's deep body temperature was lowered to near-freezing and
its blood was replaced with BioTime's patent-pending blood-
substitute solution.

The animal was anesthetized, immersed in ice and cooled to below 2
degrees Celsius, using the BioTime solution with cardiopulmonary
bypass procedures.  After being bloodless and below 10 degrees
Centigrade for 55 minutes, the animal was rewarmed and revived.  The
baboon is presently under study by BioTime scientists to determine any
long-term physical effects.

The company intends to conduct further experiments on primates, using
its blood-substitute solutions.

2-13. Who has successfully kept dogs cold for hours?  Did they survive? Any
      brain damage?

Several people have achieved that.  The first cryonics organization to
do so was Alcor, in the mid 1980's.  For example, the Jan. 1986 issue
of Cryonics magazine describes, in the article "Dixie's Rebirthday", a
German Shepherd dog named Dixie who "experienced the privilege (and
the peril) of having all her blood washed out and replaced with a
synthetic solution and then being cooled to 4 C.  For four hours she
was held at this temperature: stiff, cold, with eyes flattened out,
brain waves stopped, and heart stilled.  Then, she was reperfused with
blood, warmed up and restored to life and health."  She made a total
recovery.  Several variations, with different perfusates and slightly
different temperatures and/or times were also performed by Alcor.
Later, ACS performed a similar experiment on a beagle named Miles and
recently (1992) BioTime successfully cooled and revived a baboon.

In comparison, hypothermic cardiac surgery was pioneered on humans
decades ago, although the temperatures used were not nearly as low as
in the dog experiments above.  More recently, the October 1988 issue
of The Immortalist described successful surgery on a brain aneurysm in
which the patient was cooled to 15 C for almost an hour.  During that
time the patient's blood remained drained from the body, there was no
respiration, the heart did not beat, and the brain barely functioned.

2-14. Who froze the roundworms?  What happened?

(This text is quoted with slight modifications from CRYOMSG 790 posted
by Charles Platt)

Gerry Arthus, Alcor New York's Coordinator, has announced preliminary
results of an experiment which was designed to investigate whether
memories will survive cryonic suspension.

For his experiment, Gerry used Caenorhabditis elegans, a nematode
(tiny worm) that's one of the simplest living creatures. It has a
complete nervous system, however, and can be "trained" in a
rudimentary way. Worms that are raised in a warm environment will
"remember" it and will prefer it if they are given the choice.
Conversely, worms that were raised in a cooler area will tend to
prefer that environment.

Gerry placed a small number of worms in a cryoprotective solution and
froze them to -80 degrees Celsius for two hours.  After he revived the
worms, the ones that survived the experience still "remembered" their
former environmental preferences. So far as we know, this is the
world's first experiment designed to verify that memory is chemically
encoded and will survive the freezing process.

The sample that Gerry used is too small to prove anything
conclusively. Soon, however, Gerry hopes to repeat the experiment with
a larger sample. He also intends to devise tests to eliminate the
possibility that the worms changed physiologically to adapt themselves
to warmer or cooler environments.

2-15. What were the circumstances under which cat brains produced
      normal-looking brain waves after being frozen?

This was reported by I. Suda and A.C. Kito in Nature, 212, 268-270 (1966).
The cat brains were perfused with 15% glycerol and cooled to -20 C
for five days and, upon rewarming and perfusion with fresh blood,
showed normal brain function (as measured by EEG).  Since this experiment
was done so long ago, and technology has improved considerably since
then, there is some interest in redoing these experiments to see how
well we can do now.

The April 1992 Cryonics, volume 13 number 4 page 4, talks more about
this and gives more references. Appendix B of CRFT talks about the
plausibility of repair in general.

2-16. Would it be possible to use some improvement on modern CAT or MRI
      scanners to infer enough about the structure of a brain to reconstruct
      the memories and personality?

This was discussed on the cryonics mailing list some time back.  The
conclusion was that using radiation to infer the structure of the
neurons in a brain in a reasonable amount of time would require enough
radiation to vaporize that brain.  Then the discussion moved on to

·