Reversing Death and Resurrecting Humans

The following article was obtained through Popular Mechanics and published on May 26, 2023. Written by Tim Newcomb.

German Doctors Are Attempting to Reverse Death and Resurrect Humans

A company called Tomorrow Biostasis is focusing on human cryopreservation in the hopes it can eventually reverse death. The new Berlin startup has already preserved the bodies of about 10 deceased humans. Liquid nitrogen is the main ingredient used to ensure cryopreservation.

The waiting list for Tomorrow Biostasis, a cryopreservation startup based in Germany, is in the hundreds. And the company already has about 10 cases with some bodies preserved in a lab. What comes next is the real issue.

According to a report from Tech.Eu, the company’s “standby ambulance” has already been busy, with co-founder Emil Kendziorra working to launch Europe’s first cryogenics company (there are already a handful of them in the United States). Kendziorra’s goal: As soon as somebody dies, Tomorrow Biostasis immediately responds to preserve the person’s body and/or brain in a state of stasis. Then, once future advances materialize, the company will treat and reverse the person’s original cause of death and bring them back from the dead to enjoy a life extension.

That’s the plan, anyway.

Kendziorra says his company has “about 10 people” already cryopreserved for training purposes and hundreds more on the waiting list. The company’s typical clientele are 36 years old on average and tend to work in tech, which is perhaps the least surprising development of all. A few of these people just want their brain preserved, thinking their future selves may prefer a new 3D-printed body... or maybe not even a body at all.

When the bodies get transported to Rafz, Switzerland for long-term storage at the European Biostasis Foundation—the process is technically considered a scientific body donation, to make it legal—they get cooled to -196 degrees Celsius and placed inside an insulated tank with liquid nitrogen to lock in the preservation.

Of course, waiting for medical advancement to progress to the point it can reverse what caused your death isn’t the only hurdle in this entire cryopreservation concept. There’s still the small issue of nobody knowing how to actually revive a dead cryopreserved human. Sure, they can freeze the brain to preserve cells and tissues, but bringing a previously dead brain back to life with regular function and memories isn’t quite a thing in our world—yet.

And those are just the big questions. There are also plenty of smaller issues, such as who makes the decision on the revival, because, well, you can’t freeze up on the right timing.

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The following article was obtained through Science & Technology and published on January 16, 2018.

First Human Frozen By Cryogenics Could Be Brought Back To Life ‘In Just TEN Years’, Claims Expert

Hundreds worldwide have had their corpses frozen in a cryogenic chamber. They are preserved after death in the hope they can be revived in the future. An expert has claimed scientists could reanimate one of these corpses within the next ten years.

Human corpses frozen by cryogenics could be brought back to life in the next decade, an expert has claimed.

Around 350 people worldwide have had their corpse preserved at low temperatures immediately after death in the hope it can be revived in the future.

Dennis Kowalski, president of the Michigan-based Cryonics Institute – an organisation fronting the human freezing process – has now claimed scientists could reanimate one of these corpses within the next ten years.

Speaking to the Daily Star, Mr Kowalski, 49, said: ‘If you take something like CPR, that would have seemed unbelievable 100 years ago. Now we take that technology for granted.‘Cryonically bringing someone back to life should definitely be doable in 100 years, but it could be as soon as ten.’

Mr Kowalksi’s Cryonics Institute has almost 2,000 people signed up to be frozen after they die.

The firm already has 160 patients frozen in specialised tanks of liquid nitrogen at its headquarters.

Mr Kowalski said that when the first patients are reanimated depends on the rate at which modern medicine improves.

‘It depends on how much technology like stem-cells advances,’ he said.

Cryonics, also known as cryogenics and cryopreservation, is the art of freezing a dead body or body parts in order to preserve them.

CRYONICS: THE FACTS. WHAT IS CRYONICS?

The deep freezing of a body to -196°C (-321°F).

Anti-freeze compounds are injected into the corpse to stop cells being damaged.

The hope is that medical science will advance enough to bring the patient back to life.

Two main US organisations carry out cryonics in the US: Alcor, in Arizona, and the Cryonics Institute, in Michigan.

Russian firm KrioRus is one of two facilities outside the US to offer the service, alongside Alcor’s European laboratory in Portugal.

HOW IS IT MEANT TO WORK?

The process can only take place once the body has been declared legally dead.

Ideally, it begins within two minutes of the heart stopping and no more than 15.

The body must be packed in ice and injected with chemicals to reduce blood clotting.

At the cryonics facility, it is cooled to just above 0°C and the blood is replaced with a solution to preserve organs.   

Cryonpreservation is the deep freezing of a body to – 196°C (-321°F). Anti-freeze compounds are injected into the corpse to stop cells being damaged

The body is injected with another solution to stop ice crystals forming in organs and tissues, then cooled to -130°C.

The final step is to place the body into a container which is lowered into a tank of liquid nitrogen at -196°C.

WHAT’S THE CHANCE OF SUCCESS?

Many experts say there is none.

Organs such as the heart and kidneys have never been successfully frozen and thawed.

It is even less likely a whole body, and the brain, could be without irreversible damage.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

Charges at the Cryonics Institute start at around £28,000 ($35,000) to ‘members’ for whole-body cryopreservation.

Rival group Alcor charges £161,000 ($200,000) while KrioRus’ procedure will set you back £29,200 ($37,600).

HOW LONG BEFORE PEOPLE CAN BE BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE?

Cryonics organisations claim it could be decades or even centuries.

However, medical experts say once cells are damaged during freezing and turned to ‘mush’ they cannot be converted back to living tissue, any more than you can turn a scrambled egg back into a raw egg.

Advocates see it as a miracle procedure to cheat death, with the hope that they will be revived once medical science has progressed far enough to cure whatever killed them.

Currently, it is only legal to freeze someone when they have just been declared dead.

The freezing process must begin as soon as the patient dies in order to prevent brain damage, with facilities currently available in Russia, the US and Portugal.

In the procedure, the body is cooled in an ice bath to gradually reduce its temperature bit by bit.

Experts then drain the blood and replace it with an anti freeze fluid to stop harmful ice crystals forming in the body.

This Company Freezes Dead People, Hoping to Bring Them Back to Life