CHAPTER 1
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Most of us now living have a chance for personal, physical immortality.
This remarkable proposition-which may soon become a pivot of personal and national life-is easily understood by joining one established fact to one reasonable assumption.
The fact: At very low temperatures it is possible, right now, to preserve dead people with essentially no deterioration, indefinitely. (Details and references will be supplied.)
The assumption: If civilization endures, medical science should eventually be able to repair almost any damage to the human body, including freezing damage and senile debility or other cause of death. (Definite reasons for such optimism will be given.)
Hence we need only arrange to have our bodies, after we die, stored in suitable freezers against the time when science may be able to help us. No matter what kills us, whether old age or disease, and even if freezing techniques are still crude when we die, sooner or later our friends of the future should be equal to the task of reviving and curing us. This is the essence of the main argument.
The arrangements will no doubt be handled at first by individuals, then by private companies, and perhaps later by the Social Security system.
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By preserving Our bodies in as nearly life-like a condition as possible, it is clear that you and I, right now, have a chance to avoid permanent death. But is it a substantial chance, Or Only a remote one? I believe the odds are excitingly favourable, and it is the purpose of this hook to make this belief plausible. If it is made plausible, the necessary efforts will be encouraged further to improve the Odds.
It is my hope that the cumulative weight of the discussion will convince the reader that his own life is at stake, and those of his family, and that his personal efforts are urgently needed in this mighty undertaking. (The pun should be forgivable; it is impossible consistently to accord the subject the awesome dignity it deserves.)
Suspended Life and Suspended Death
It must be made very clear that our basic program is not one of "suspended animation," and does not depend on any special timetable of scientific progress, but can be instituted immediately. To make sure of our orientation, let us review the meaning of suspended animation and of the several kinds of death.
Suspended animation refers to a stand-still in the life processes of the body. It is a stasis which can be imposed and removed at will, and the subject is regarded as alive at all times. In some simple life forms suspended animation can be produced simply by drying, and reanimation by moistening them again; in fact, certain bacteria found embedded in salt have been reported revived after hundreds of millions of years. (100) For humans, the only likely way to induce suspended animation is by freezing, but full recovery after complete freezing has not yet been achieved with any mammal.
The subtle distinction between life and death is evident in the case of the dried bacteria, which were regarded as alive
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merely because they were potentially capable of displaying life processes. In fact, we recognize at least five kinds of death, which must be kept firmly in mind.
"Clinical death" is the kind we most frequently have in mind, its criteria being cessation of heartbeat and breathing.
"Biological death" has been defined by Dr. A. 5. Parkes as the state from which resuscitation of the body as a whole is impossible by currently known means. (110) This is very logical, but also very odd: a frozen body might lie around for years in a "dead" condition, then all at once come alive, without any physical change whatever, as soon as someone found a means of resuscitation.
"Cellular death" refers to irreversible degeneration of the individual tiny cells of our bodies.
The questions of legal death and religious death will be left for later chapters.
The important point is that a man does not go like the one-horse shay, but dies little by little usually, in imperceptible gradations, and the question of reversibility at any stage depends on the state of medical art. Clinical death is often reversible; the criteria of biological death are constantly changing; and even cellular death is a matter of degree, since it is possible for an individual cell to be made nonfunctional by minor and eventually reparable damage.
Suspended death, then, will refer to the condition of a biologically dead body which has been frozen and stored at a very low temperature, so that degeneration is arrested and not progressive. The body can be thought of as dead, but not very dead; it cannot be revived by present methods, but the condition of most of the cells may not differ too greatly from that in life.
There is also an interesting intermediate condition between suspended life and suspended death, which will be mentioned in a later chapter.
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When full-fledged suspended animation becomes practicable, a wide range of options will be available. For example, the feeble aged and the incurably ill may choose to suspend life and await a day when cures are known. On the other hand, many people may still choose to be frozen only after natural death-but the techniques Of suspended animation, applied after clinical death but before biological death, should ensure that their condition is still One of suspended life. (It is not self evident that techniques applicable to a living person are also suitable for one clinically dead, but reasons for thinking so will be produced later.)
The chief value of research on suspended animation, then, is that it will develop new freezing techniques, ways to avoid freezing damage. When this is achieved, we will be able to pre- serve Our freshly dead bodies with Only the damage of old age or disease, and without the additional insult of damage by crude freezing methods, and thus our chances of early resuscitation will be vastly improved.
(How strange that the many popular articles on suspended animation have mentioned chiefly its possible use by astronauts on long interstellar voyages! This aspect is trivial. Its importance lies not in travel to the stars, for the few, but in travel to the future, for the many. It will open a veritable "door into summer" for all of us.)
Research in freezing techniques is proceeding actively, al- though so far on a relatively small scale, at a number of laboratories and hospitals in the United States, France, Britain, Russia, and elsewhere. Some small animals, and some types of human tissue, have been deep frozen and successfully restored to life. Actual full-body freezing and suspended animation of a human being is anticipated fairly soon by some workers. Dr. James F.
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Connell, Jr. (St. Vincent's Hospital, New York) is reported in 1962 to have said, "If all the medical personnel involved with this problem make a concerted effort, we will do it in less than five years." (117)
Research work will be multiplied and accelerated if sufficient demand appears for freezer programs. Should this happen, most of us now living will have the benefit of freezing by advanced techniques, so that our bodies will be preserved in much better condition than is now possible.
If feasible, therefore, one should contrive to stay alive for the next few years, since the odds will improve rapidly during this time.
For the present, we must rely on the basic program of suspended death. It is simply proposed that, after one dies a natural death, his body be frozen and preserved at a very low temperature -perhaps near absolute zero, the lowest possible temperature -which will prevent further deterioration for an indefinite period. The body will be damaged by the disease or old age which is the cause of death, and will be further damaged (although in some eases probably not much, as we shall see) by our current freezing methods. But it will not decay or suffer any more changes, and one assumes that at some date scientists will be able to restore life, health, and vigor-and these, in fact, in greater measure than was ever enjoyed in the first life. (This is a tall order, of course, and one of the chief aims of this hook is to make it seem reasonable.)
The tired old man, then, will close his eyes, and he can think of his impending temporary death as another period under anaesthesia in the hospital. Centuries may pass, but to him there will be only a moment of sleep without dreams.
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After awakening, he may already be again young and virile, having been rejuvenated while unconscious; or he may be gradually renovated through treatment after awakening. In any case, he will have the physique of a Charles Atlas if he wants it, and his weary and faded wife, if she chooses, may rival Miss Universe. Much more important, they will be gradually improved in mentality and personality. They will not find themselves idiot strangers in a lonely and baffling world, but will be made fully educable and integrable.
If civilization endures, if the Golden Age materializes, the future will reveal a wonderful world indeed, a vista to excite the mind and thrill the heart. It will be bigger and better than the present-but not only that. It will not be just the present, king-sized and chocolate covered; it will be different. The key difference will be in people; we will remold, nearer to the heart s desire, not just the world, but ourselves as well. And "ourselves" refers to people, not just posterity. You and I, the frozen, the resuscitees, will be not merely revived and cured, but enlarged and improved, made fit to work, play, and perhaps fight, on a grand scale and in a grand style. Specific reasons for such expectations will be presented.
Clearly, the freezer is more attractive than the grave, even if one has doubts about the future capabilities of science. With had luck, the frozen people will simply remain dead, as they would have in the grave. But with good luck, the manifest destiny of science will be realized, and the resuscitees will drink the wine of centuries unborn. The likely prize is so enormous that even slender odds would be worth embracing.
In order to remove the prospect of immortality from the realm of thin, hazy speculation or daydreams and secure it in
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the domain of emotional conviction and work-a-day policy, it is essential that the discussion assume some scope and provide some background detail. The gist of the main argument has already been given, but it needs to be filled out and buttressed. Many obvious objections must be met, a host of troublesome questions answered.
How much progress in freezing techniques has actually been made? How much is known about freezing damage? How severe is the damage produced by current methods of freezing, and what reasons, other than vague optimism, are there for thinking the damage may be reversible? Can frostbite be cured?
Since the brain usually begins to deteriorate within a few minutes after breathing stops, how will it be possible to freeze the body soon enough? Considering the varied circumstances of death, how can one cope with the diverse practical problems that will be faced by the pioneers in treating and storing bodies?
Do you have a legal right to freeze a relative? Will failure-to freeze be considered murder or negligent homicide? Will there be an increase in mercy killings and suicides? Can a corpse have legal rights and obligations? Can a corpse vote?
Can families be kept together? Will widowers and widows be allowed to marry again in the first life? What will happen to the rescuscitee confronted with two or more ex-husbands or wives? Is there a conflict between the freezer program and religion, or should the freezers be considered merely the latest in a long series (of medical efforts to save and prolong life? If a Christian refuses a chance at extended life through freezing, does this amount to suicide?
Will the cost of dying become so high that we cannot afford it? If we freeze every American, the current population alone will produce something like fifteen million tons of bodies; where's all the money come from, and where can we stack them all?
What about the population problem? When the frozen are
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revived, where will the throngs of ancestors find lebensraum? Do we have a right to impose ourselves on our descendants, like a mob of poor relations come to dinner? Who needs us? Will it be only the selfish and cowardly who are frozen?
Even if the future welcomes us and makes room for us, will we like it? Even if we like it at first, will we not become bored How can a mere human endure, let alone enjoy, thousands of years of life? And if we cease being human and become superhuman, will we still be ourselves? How much can a man change without losing his essence?
In fact, some of the most profound questions of philosophy are forced to the level of practical affairs. What is a man? What is death? What is the purpose of life?
How will the answers to these questions affect existing problems? Will a freezer program cause sharper competition or more cooperation among individuals and nations? Will a nuclear war become more likely or less? Will a man looking forward to thousands of years be less inclined to rock the beat and mori inclined to practice the Golden Rule?
An attempt will be made to throw some light into all these dark corners.