Sponhouse 1

Tanner Sponhouse
Mrs. Pratt
UWRT 1102
6 April 2015
Frozen in Time
Its freezing in here! Someone please turn on the heat! Is anyone there?? 100 years ago,
your body was put into a cryogenic tube and frozen. Its finally time to be reanimated. You feel a
warming sensation across your body and your consciousness slowly coming back to you. As you
open your eyes the doctors and scientists scream and shout in enjoyment. Youre the very first
patient to ever be thawed out and revived. Cryonics has given you a second chance at life, but
you dont understand exactly how it works. Im going to explain the process and some other
interesting facts about cryopreservation and how it will eventually affect our world.
The Icy Beginning
Robert Ettinger, born in the early 1900s, attended Wayne State University and obtained
masters degrees in both physics and mathematics. In 1962, he introduced his long thought about
idea of cryonics in his book, The Prospect of Immortality which allowed people to view his
thoughts and the process of cryonics. Then, in 1967, Ettinger himself founded a group called The
Immortalist Society which consisted of people who would help him research and develop his
idea of cryonics and bring it to life. How long did it take them to figure this out? Robert and his
group of enthusiasts were about to open the Cryonics Institute in Michigan in 1976 (Cryonics
Institute). This was also the first year that a person would be suspended in a cryonics tube and
the lucky man to go first is Dr. James Bedford (Perry). Since then, the technology has become
even better and there is more of a chance of surviving the process. Dr. Ettinger has such faith in

Sponhouse 2
his study that he placed his mother, first and second wives in cryonics tubes at his business.
When Ettinger passed away in July of 2011, he too was placed in a tube in hopes that one day he
would be brought back (Cryonics Institute).
How is it Possible?
Going into this process, many people know the pros and cons of what could possibly
happen when they are drained of all their blood and prepped to go into below freezing
temperatures to preserve themselves in time. How can someone possibly be frozen without frost
bite and hypothermia setting it? A process known as vitrification allows not only organs but also
entire people to be frozen in cryostats at subzero degree Celsius temperatures. When I read that
this process was used, I wanted to know exactly how it worked. ALCOR Life Extension
Programs gives a very detailed diagram on how this process works and explains why it works.
Everyone knows that when water gets below zero degrees Celsius it freezes which is why so
many were skeptical about how cryonics was going to work. As water freezes, it expands and
causes the cells in your body to slow down and eventually become crushed by the ice which
damages them and leaves them useless. To prevent this, bodies placed in cryostats have their
cells pumped full of cryoprotectants (ACLOR Life Extension
Foundation). This solution made of either glycerol or DMSO
(Dimethyl Sulphoxide) acts as an antifreeze for biological cells
(Thompson). Basically, this causes water to become solid and stop the
life of the cell but not actually become frozen. This means that it has
been vitrified. Since the beginning of cryonics, cells being damaged
was the issues they were having but, with this process which has
become more and more elaborate, it now allows the brain to be frozen

Sponhouse 3
with little to no damage at all which in turn means that all of the information and memories that
the brain holds will also be saved (Thompson). The patient is stored in a liquid nitrogen in a tube
called a Cryostat if you chose CI and a Dewar if you choose ALCOR. These tubes basically act
as giant thermos canister except theyre filled with
liquid nitrogen instead of coffee and very cold instead of
hot. Either way they hold the temperature of the inside
liquid at the same temperature it was when it was put
there. At CI, the suspended people are either put in a
cylindrical tube which is filled with liquid nitrogen once
a week or a rectangular unit that is filled twice a week.
The cylindrical units can hold up to six human beings at a time and the rectangular units are even
larger than that. Needless to say, they will not be running out of space anytime soon (Cryonics
Institute).
Frozen by the Law
Currently, it is not legal to put someone through the process of cryonics while theyre still
living. The Cryonics Institute believes that one day, if it will become legal to preserve someone
before the body completely shuts down, that they will be able to maintain more of the persons
original state without the damage that death causes. If one day the process of reanimation
becomes possible, they believe that pre-mortem cryopreservation will be allowed (Cryonics
Institute). ALCOR says in one article on their website that Today, cryonics suspension patients
are legally dead. Not alive, not in-between, but DEAD (ACLOR Life Extension Foundation).
Cryonics is best performed quickly after the heart stops, usually within one to two minutes but

Sponhouse 4
less than fifteen minutes to prevent neurologic and cell injuries (ACLOR Life Extension
Foundation).
Why Would Someone Do This?
Many people including myself ask why should I want to be put in a cryostat and
preserved without knowing what the future holds? and this is exactly what I believe cryonics is
built on and how I have heard others describe it in articles and documents. Just think, each year
medical technology becomes more advanced than the year before and saves numerous amounts
of lives because of it. Here is a scenario that could have happened in the past: What if you passed
away this today because cancer has taken over some of your body? Then, tomorrow doctors find
the cure for cancer. Cryonics could potentially give you the ability to stay preserved for a short
or long term and allow new medical procedures to cure your diseases and let you live your life
how you should have. Also, with the way nanotechnology and 3-D printing are coming into the
biological field, it would be a possibility that anyone could be brought back to life and have their
diseased parts replaced with new artificial pieces (Emanuelson). Based on previous records,
many people are saved each day by simple procedures that were not around before such as CPR
and the Heimlich maneuver. I mean really though, isnt it cool to think that you could be stored
and brought back from your suspension thousands of years into the future? What could possibly
stop anybody from wanting to do that? It sounds very appealing to me because I have always had
a fascination with futuristic things. But still one problem exists has anyone actually been
reanimated and put back into the real world?
What Year is it?
Unfortunately, the only time I have ever seen or heard of anybody being brought back
after being in a cryostat was on a cartoon show called Futurama. This is the missing link in

Sponhouse 5
cryonics right now and research is being done every day to help discover a way to bring full size
human beings back after being frozen. To this day, only some animals such as cats, dogs, and
rodents have been reanimated after having their bodies filled with cryoprotectants and subjected
to temperatures below zero degrees Celsius (Cryonics Institute). But, the first problem is that
these animals were not tested in temperatures like what humans are being stored at and second,
no mammals of any size have been brought back yet which leaves me with the question, Will
these people ever come back? but no one knows what the future holds. Basically the people that
have signed up for cryonics have put their money and their life (even though they are dead) in
the hands of the people running these places. Some people do not agree with this because of how
much it costs and the possibility that it may never actually be possible.
Why Dont More People Do This?
As I said previously, it is not an absolutely sure thing that you will be able to be
reanimated after preservation or that the issues you had when you were considered to be dead
will ever be able to be fixed. Some people also do not believe that cryonics is religiously the
correct thing to do when passing away because you should be departing with your soul and going
to heaven or hell. The moral thing behind this is that they believe that cryonics is resurrecting the
dead but, the people of cryonics believe that they are not actually dead, that with medical
procedures they can be saved. ALCOR states that cryonics is viewed as an occult because the
patient has to be presumed dead before the process can be started. It has been proven
scientifically though, that all things a human live by, information, personality, and identity are
stored on the brain which means that if the brain is preserved then the person can be saved. So
religion is one blockade but the next issue is money (ACLOR Life Extension Foundation). This
process at the cheapest will cost you $28,000 and that is only to have your brain frozen (Cryonics

Sponhouse 6
Institute). Full body prices are extremely expensive at wherever you go whether it be The
Cryonics Institute or ALCOR Life Extension Program. I believe that within the near future the
process will become less expensive and easier to do with a better chance at living also.
Is it cool to be frozen? No Pun Intended
It seems that since this process has begun, it is starting to get out and about in Hollywood
and in sports like how most other things start to become popular. As I stated above, the most
important person to be preserved is obviously the first one because otherwise it wouldve been
quite some time before the next was preserved. According to an article on Mental Floss, they
show that 7 other people have been noted along with the first patient. Dick Clair Jones (writer,
actor, and producer), Ted Williams (MLB Player) and his son Henry Williams, Jerry Leaf
(ALCOR VP), and a guy by the name of Fereidoun M. Esfandiary whom I do not recognize but
is interesting because he renamed himself as FM-2030. FM-2030 renamed himself because of his
initials and that he would be 100 years old in 2030 which he believed would be a time of ageless
humans and basically immortality (Conradt).
So those were some people that passed away many of years ago and you may or may not
know who they are. But this next piece of information even surprised me a little bit. Who do you
think the next celebrity to be cryogenically frozen would be? Did you guess Larry King? Seth
MacFarlane? Simon Cowell? Muhammad Ali? WaitParis Hilton and Britney Spears? Yes,
each one of these celebrities have talked about the possibilities of joining the frozen army and
carrying on their legacies for many years to come. These six have only voiced their interests in
cryonics but have not actually said they will (Donahue). What celebrity would you like to see
frozen in time so that one day your kids might be able see them also?

Sponhouse 7
Would you consider it?
I know Ive thrown a lot of information at you in these short seven pages but, what are
your thoughts on cryonics? Would you be willing to consider this as one of your possible burial
techniques after you die? When would you want to be brought back to life? It would be a lot to
think about going through this process especially since there is no hard evidence of it working
but, within the near future, cryonics could go from a television SCI-FI to real life and completely
change peoples outlook on death.

Sponhouse 8
Works Cited
ACLOR Life Extension Foundation. What is Vitrification? 2015. Web. 25 March 2015.
Conradt, Stacy. The Quick 8: Eight People Who Have Been Cryonically Preserved (and one who
wasn't). 11 Feb 2009. 23 Apr 2015.
Cryonics Institute. Robert Ettinger Biography. n.d. Web. 25 Mar 2015.
Donahue, Molly. Frozen In Time: 7 Celebrities Who Are Taking Steps to Live Forever . 8 Jul
2013. Web. 23 Apr 2015.
Emanuelson, Jerry. Nanotechnology. 2013. web. 24 Apr 2015.
Perry, Mike. "ALCOR LIfe Extension Foundation." July 1991. The First Suspension. Web. 25
Mar 2015.
Thompson, Maria. Cryoprotectants and cell cryopreservation. What are your options? 13 Nov
2012. Web. 25 March 2015.