X-Message-Number: 28260
From: "James Clement" <>
Subject: TV viewers to see body cryonically preserved
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2006 07:07:15 -0400

TV viewers to see body cryonically preserved

'Shocking, compelling'

 

Joanne Laucius

CanWest News Service


Monday, July 24, 2006

 

For the first time, a television documentary is to present footage of a
person being cryonically preserved after death.

The hour-long Death In The Deep Freeze, a National Geographic Channel
co-production with the independent production company Zig Zag, is to be
broadcast this month by Channel Five in Britain.

The documentary, called "shocking and compelling" by the British media,
follows a woman with terminal cancer before and after her death, when her
body was drained of most of its fluids and "deep cooled" to below -120C in a
stainless steel tank.

The documentary was filmed, in part, at Arizona's Alcor Life Extension
Foundation, one of two facilities in the United States where about 150
people have paid to be "suspended" in deep cold in the hope they may someday
be revived and cured of the disease that killed them.

"The human and emotional journey we captured with one contributor in
particular, filming prior to her death and the subsequent process of her
preservation, in conjunction with the amazing scientific and ethical
questions raised by this subject, makes for one of our most challenging and
fascinating productions to date," executive director Jes Wilkins told The
Guardian newspaper.

Alcor has been wary of media that present cryonics in terms of human
Popsicles, and is even cautious about the word "frozen." The process --
vitrification -- replaces most of the water in the cells with protective
chemicals. Freezing creates crystals, which destroys cells, said Cheryl
Walsh, a spokeswoman for Alcor.

A few years ago, Alcor agreed to allow another production crew into its
facilities, then pulled the plug. "Some of the articles were making us
nervous," said Ms. Walsh, who concedes that she cringes a little at the
title Death in the Deep Freeze.

Alcor and the woman at the centre of the documentary, who is not named,
agreed to take part in the production to draw attention to the procedure and
its possibilities.

"People are skeptical. But they were skeptical that we could go to the
moon," said Ms. Walsh, who concedes that cryonics is "still experimental."

Cryonics "is a belief that no one is really dead until their mind is
destroyed, and that low temperatures can prevent this destruction,"
according to Alcor, which currently has 78 "patients" in a state of cryonic
suspension and another 800 "members" who have signed on to be preserved
after their deaths.

Although some members are multi-millionaires, most of Alcor's membership
fund the procedure with life insurance, Ms. Walsh said.

It costs US$150,000 to cryonically preserve an entire body and US$80,000 for
"neurosuspension," which preserves only the head.

Some of the money is placed in trust in perpetuity for the care, Ms. Walsh
said.

Keeping the tanks at the optimum temperature doesn't require electricity,
merely an occasional top-up of liquid nitrogen.

Alcor says those who sign up understand that there are no guarantees they
will be revived at some future date.

"Members go through a lot of education before we sign them up," Ms. Walsh
said.

"People who sign up hope they can be reversed and come back to a full life."

Baseball legend Ted Williams remains in cryostasis at Alcon's Scottsdale
facility. Reports in 2002 said his head and body are kept in separate tanks.

 



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