Preface
by Jean Rostand de l'Academie francaise
About a century ago, Edmond About, a fine French writer and one of the precursors of "science fiction," published a short novel called The Man with the Broken Ear. In this diverting tale, he tells about a professor of biology who dries out a living man and then, after a "suspension of life" lasting several decades, successfully resuscitates him.
What was, in 1861, only an amusing fantasy has in our time taken on a rather prophetic air; for, in the light of recent scientific developments, a similar method of preserving a human being no longer seems so impossible.
We have learned, from the experiments of Hahn de Becquerel and others, that some animals of the lower orders (Rotifera, Tardigrada, Anguilla), some vegetable seeds and some microbes can have all internal activity interrupted for a long time by being reduced in temperature to close to absolute zero-and then, upon being thawed, resume all normal functions again. But more than this, researchers report having observed "resurrections" of this sort even among higher order animals; though the entire animal may not have been involved, it is definitely the case that a significant amount of tissue-and even whole organs - were thus frozen and revived. In the same way, the sperm of certain mammals, when impregnated with proper preservatives, has been able to endure the temperature of liquid nitrogen for some months without losing the ability to regain normal mobility and the capacity to reproduce. Likewise, the heart of a chicken, after undergoing a similar super cooling, was able to heat again after being rewarmed.
So it is not out of the question to anticipate future successes of greater and greater complexity; indeed, we are at last even forced to concede the real possibility that the means for freezing and resuscitating human beings will one day be perfected, at however distant a time this may be. This certainly is the opinion of M. Louis Hey, one of the most competent contemporary biologists in the field. He writes:
"There are some very convincing reasons to think that, thanks to future research, one will be able to bridge the gap that now separates the superior organisms from the Tardigrada and Rotifera; the solution will then be found to the problem of suspending the vital life force perhaps indefinitely."(Conservatism de 1a vie par le froid. Hermann, 1959.)
In The Man with the Broken Ear, Edmond About envisioned, with a certain amount of humour, some of the consequences for human society which could result from the preservation of human beings.
"The sick people who were declared incurable by the ignorant scientists of the nineteenth century need no longer bother their heads about it; they were dried up to wait peacefully in the bottom of a box until the doctors had found remedies for their ills."
R. C. W. Ettinger, the author of The Prospect of Immortality, has gone a crucial step beyond the French writer: It is not only the incurables he proposes to preserve, but the dead themselves. Indeed, as Mr. Ettinger suggests, should not the dead be considered to be only "temporary incurables" that a better informed science might one day resuscitate by repairing the ills to which they had succumbed - whether their difficulty be sickness, accident or old age? The preservation he advocates would be through refrigeration (a liquid helium or nitrogen bath); this is a method of freezing that is not harmless now, but undoubtedly the science of tomorrow will have ways of repairing freezing damage too.
So we don't have long to wait before we shall know how to freeze the human organism without injuring it. When that happens, we shall have to replace cemeteries by dormitories, so that each of us may have the chance for immortality that the present state of knowledge seems to promise. At the moment, all of this may seem like a remote chance, and no one is more aware of this than Mr. Ettinger. But he has the insight to realize that we have nothing to lose and, possibly, everything to gain by pressing the search. It is, in a sense, a Pascal's wager based on a faith in science. Certainly, a decision to let all corpses remain corpses is, in the face of Mr. Ettinger's alternative, the highest folly.
What is important to realize is that Mr. Ettinger is, in the strictly biological section of the book, carrying to its logical conclusion an argument for which he has unimpeachable premises. It is not the role of the prefacer to pronounce on the immediate practicality of the program. Indeed, Mr. Ettinger himself fully understands that the whole job cannot be done overnight. What he is telling us is that we must begin; the job will be done some day, and for every day that we put it off untold thousands are going to an unnecessary grave.
In any case, Mr. Ettinger's book is a captivating, stimulating tonic crammed with original views-especially on the problem of the personal identity of the individual. It deserves to be read and thought about.
Translated by Sandra Danenberg