For some, a concept that stems from pure science fiction and human hubris, for others, a real way to challenge the grim reaper by betting on technological progress:cryogenization or cryonics, this practice which theoretically consists of store the bodies of deceased persons at extremely cold temperatures hoping one day to be able to resurrect them thanks to advances in science, is divisive. Not only is this a bet on the future, to say the least, uncertain, but what can afford to do today only a tiny part of the extremely rich population. What about?
The practice finds its origins in works of science fiction:at the time of the conquest of space, the colonization of distant stars is envisaged, which therefore supposes putting the astronauts to sleep for several years or even decades, without them have aged when they wake up. In 1962, Robert Ettinger, since considered the father of cryonics, published a book entitled The Perspective of Immortality in which he advocates the development of this technique, and it was in the 1960s that attempts were made to put it into practice:in 1967, James Bedford, an American academic, became the first person in the world to be cryogenized. While the practice was criticized from the outset by the scientific community, faith in technological progress and examples of natural conservation (the Siberian salamander, for example, is a species of which some specimens have survived storage for several years in permafrost ) never allow it to be completely discredited.
In the following years, therefore, various companies offering cryonics services were founded, not without controversy, as when Robert Nelson, the founder of the Cryonics Society of California , who finds himself acting as a spokesperson for the movement despite his means for the less artisanal (Nelson has no scientific training, nor even finished high school), is pursued by the families of the nine people he cryogenized after having left them to decompose in their vault for lack of bottom. What emerges from these stories of the precursors of cryonics is often a chilling despair on the part of loved ones who do not accept the death of a spouse or a child, and are ready to try anything to keep hope alive.
The practice has therefore never completely disappeared, although it is extremely rare, in particular because of the enormous investment required by conservation, of which no one can promise exactly how many decades it will have to extend. Thus, today there are only about 350 cryogenic people on the planet (the majority in the United States, a few in Russia), while a few thousand others have made the project by signing a cryonics contract.
While the basic principle of cryonics remains the same—essentially that death is not a one-time, irreversible event, but rather a reversible process—it has, however, been perfected since its modest beginnings, at least according to his followers who use more advanced means than the now infamous Robert Nelson.
According to its supporters, cryonics must therefore be carried out within six hours of clinical death, in order to limit the degradation of the organism as much as possible, and on an organism of course still in relatively good condition. This is why it only concerns people whose death is imminent due to an incurable pathology, and it could hardly be envisaged, for example, following a fatal accident, whatever some committed to cryonics carry instructions with them in case of sudden death. It is also one of the workhorses of this movement, since if cryonics remains prohibited on living people everywhere in the world, some of its followers would like to see the legislation modified in order to be able to practice it on people who are still alive and whose tissues would therefore still be in perfect condition. As things currently stand, specialized companies therefore initially intervene at the place of death, unless the person has chosen to die within their premises.
The procedure, in the current state of practice, takes place as follows:first, the cardiac functions of the remains are artificially maintained in order to continue to irrigate the brain, while plunging it into an ice bath. Then, the blood and water are replaced by a chemical cryopreservative liquid, in order to limit the formation of crystals within the body due to the extremely low storage temperatures, the crystals having the consequence of damaging tissues and cells. , and thus jeopardize the eventual resurrection. These cryopreservatives would therefore make it possible to reach an aqueous state which is described as vitrified, and which, in contrast to that of ice, would be characterized by an absence of structure and therefore a non-rearrangement of the molecules (which is the cause of the tissue damage when the body is simply frozen). If this technology known as vitrification would therefore make it possible since 2004 to almost eliminate the formation of ice crystals in the brain, it remains limited, since all the tissues cannot be successfully vitrified due to the lack of low-temperature irrigation and these preservatives would be toxic.
Once this delicate step is completed, the temperature is gradually lowered to -196°C , where the body remains preserved in sorts of cylinders until the promised resurrection - a resurrection which therefore remains the main thorn in the side of supporters of cryonics, since it is currently quite impossible to repair the damage caused during of the process, and thus to bring the preserved remains back to life, which are also regularly scanned to ensure their condition.
However, this is not to discourage followers of the practice. Several non-profit organizations — Alcor or the Cryonics Institute in the United States — and companies — such as KrioRus in Russia — therefore still offer to freeze the entire body, or only the head and brain, of individuals wishing to cheating death or escaping a nowadays incurable disease. It is more generally nowadays only the brain which is the subject of cryonics , since the concept of informational death defines it as the receptacle of our memory, and therefore of our consciousness and identity, and assumes that a civilization capable of bringing this organ back to life could undoubtedly more easily regenerate a whole body on which the 'to graft that to repair the damage caused by a cryogenisation of this one. Some of these companies even agree to keep pets... In short, strange modern crypts where the remains and scalps of hopeful patients are patiently piled up, for a few tens of thousands of dollars.
In short, nowadays it is clearly a speculative practice , because it is not possible to keep more than a few cells at such temperatures without damaging them deeply:supporters of cryonics are therefore betting not only on technological progress vis-à-vis our ability to "wake up" people preserved in this way, but also in relation to the fact that we can "repair" their bodies damaged by the extreme temperatures of conservation. Moreover, the speculation is also of a philosophical nature, since it bears on the origin of consciousness:nothing assures us today that a person who would really be able to be resuscitated and restored to a functional state would retain always her memories, and therefore her own consciousness — in other words, that she would always be the "same" person, at least on the conscious level. Remember that the scientific community largely considers cryonics to be a fad , because of the incredible complexity of the brain, and that the costs of conservation over an as yet unknown duration require new investors, evoking a Ponzi pyramid…
This is also why the practice is prohibited in many countries, including France , despite the law of November 15, 1887 which theoretically gives everyone the right to organize their own funeral as they wish. However, it is in fact only burial, cremation, and the donation of the body to science that are authorized in our country, the case law being since the case of Doctor Martinot unfavorable to the practice in our regions. This doctor was a pioneer of cryogenics in France, who first kept his wife who died in 1984 in a freezer on his property, before his son tried to do the same for him following his death in 2002. If the authorities had been lenient towards the doctor's wife, the prefect opposed this experiment in 2002 and wanted to obtain the burial of the two bodies, the son and his lawyer asking for the respect of the last wishes of the "mad doctor" and the continuation of his bet. The judgment rendered by the Council of State in 2006 is nevertheless against the latter:the practice is not tolerated because it contravenes public order.
