Case Study On Cryonics, Its Procedures And Advantages

Introduction to Cryonics

Cryonics is the preservation of a dead human body at low temperature, hoping that technologies in the future will help the individual to restore life (Watson, 2005). However, this technology is only available for people who are legally dead, instead of totally dead. An individual is referred as legal dead when his or her heart stops beating but the brain still functions, whereas total dead refers to a condition in which the individual’s brain stops functioning. There are presently two ways in which a body can be cryopreserved, namely whole-body preservation and neuropreservation. The former preserves the whole human body, while the latter preserves only the head and the brain. Compared with whole-body preservation, neuropreservation is much cheaper as less energy is needed for cooling the smaller volume and the process of removing blood and fluids can be done easier.

Procedures of Cryonics

There are several steps that will be completed during human cryopreservation (Alcor Procedures). Firstly, heart lung resuscitator will be used in the transportation of cryonic suspension patients to ensure that the supplement of blood and oxygen to the brain is enough to maintain the minimal function of it. To prevent the clotting of blood, the body, which is packed in ice, will be injected with a blood clotting preventing drug known as heparin. In the cryonics plant, the chest will be opened to remove blood and water from the body as well as to insert cryoprotectant, which helps in preventing tissues freezing and cell damage. The removed blood will be stored separately with chemicals added to avoid clotting. After every process is completed, the body will be placed inside a beg with dry ice and lowered into a giant tank filled with liquid nitrogen to maintain the low temperature. The body will be placed with the head downwards to ensure that the brain is still immersed in liquid nitrogen even when there is a leakage. These procedures of cryonics should be done preferably straight after the declaration of being legally dead. However, it is impossible for cryonics lab’s members to arrive few minutes after the announcement. In some cases, the dead body was left for several hours without keeping it at low temperature and injecting heparin. For these cases, cryonics labs have developed an alternative method of preserving human body, which is straight freezing. Straight freezing preserves a body without inserting cryoprotectant as blood vessels have been blocked by blood clots.

Potential Advantages of Cryonics

Currently, cryonics has not shown any beneficial effects to the society. However, scientists believe that cryonics can potentially bring several advantages. Firstly, cryonics may allow cancer patients to survive for a longer life. It helps to preserve the patient’s body until a cure has been discovered. In addition, it allows improvements in the space industry by enabling astronauts to be in a state known as “cryosleep”. This technology will prevent ageing of astronauts as well as reducing the supplies needed by them. Most importantly, it will lower the risks of astronauts developing mental issues due to loneliness.

Summary of Case Study

Although it has been about five decades since cryonics was introduced, human cryopreservation remains as a controversial topic in the society. Recently, there was a news about a man, who had signed up for whole body preservation, but got neuropreserved. It was believed that this quick decision was made due to the lengthy delay, which led to the clotting of the man’s blood and thus preventing the cryonics lab’s members to insert cryoprotectant. The remaining of his body was cremated and sent back to his son. However, the cryonics lab did not bother to get the authority from his family to neuropreserve and cremate the body, and the lab did not notify his son about the package, causing him to be in a state of shock. Eventually, these imprudent and disrespectful actions resulted in the son suing the lab for one million US Dollars.

Problems with Informed Consent

Informed consent is a process of getting permission from an individual before getting a medical treatment or participating in a research. This process gives information about the event, including objective, duration, methodology, risks as well as consequences. However, for cryonics, it is nearly impossible to inform participants about the duration and consequences. There is no guarantee that the procedures of cryonics can be completed with no issues and that future technology will succeed in restoring dead bodies to full health. From the case study, it shows that problems with informed consent had led to dissatisfaction of family members with cryonics lab. The man’s family did not expect several situations from occurring, including a delay in transporting the dead body to the cryonics lab, neuropreserving instead of whole body preserving as well as receiving cremated remains.

Irresponsible and Disrespect

The irresponsible actions and disrespect of cryonics lab to the man’s family are part of the ethical issues present in the case study. The cryonics lab made a quick decision in neuropreserving the man’s body as well as cremating the remaining body without getting authority from his family. The cremated remains were then sent to his son without notifying, which resulted in him having anxiety. In addition to these unwise actions, the cryonics lab did not bother to provide detailed explanations on why the decisions were made, causing the family to be in confusion. These events have shown that the cryonics lab did not give careful considerations on the consequences of being irresponsible and disrespectful.

Disregarded Legal Filing

Legal filing is a document submitted to the court for record. According to a legal filing of the man, it states that the cryonics lab should “place into suspension any remains that may be able to recover, regardless of the severity of the damage to my human remains” (Dockrill, 2018). Despite of having this legal filing, the cryonics lab did not consider it and decided to cremate his remaining body without the permission of his family members. This action of the cryonics lab is extremely disrespectful to the deceased as it did not obey the man’s wish.

Inefficient Procedure and Negligence

The diagram above shows a bracelet which is worn by participants in cryonics. It helps to notify doctors or medical examiners that the individual has signed up for cryonics and that they should contact the cryonics lab about his or her death immediately for instructions. Also, they should inject heparin, a chemical to prevent blood clotting, and start doing CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) to ensure the flow of oxygenated blood to brain and heart. Based on the article about the case study, the man was wearing this bracelet during death. However, the medical examiner did not follow instructions on the bracelet and left the body in his office for three days, which resulted in the clotting of the man’s blood. These actions have shown that the medical examiner had been negligent in preparing the man for cryonics and indirectly led to the decision of the cryonics lab to neuropreserve.

Ethical Stance

In order to determine the ethical stance in this case study, one should consider the question of whether it is right for the cryonics lab to make decisions, including neuropreserving and cremating, without informing the man’s relative. Although some people might feel that it is acceptable as decisions regarding cryonics should be made quickly for the man’s benefit, the actions are still considered inappropriate. The cryonics lab disregarded the man’s wish to participate in whole body preservation as well as the rights of his family to decide what is the best. On top of that, no explanations were given to clarify the doubts of the man’s family. All in all, this news had further worsened the society’s impression on cryonics field.

Ethical Stance

Based on the feedbacks given concerning ethical stance, the consensus is that the cryonics lab’s action of deciding what to do with the dead body without getting permission from his family members is unacceptable. Most responses state that it is unacceptable as the man’s family has the right to know what will be done to the dead body. They should be informed of the current circumstances and given the right to choose what is best for the man. Minority of the responses state that the actions of cryonics lab are ignoring the man’s wish of participating in whole body preservation and thus the decisions are injudicious.

Presentation Style

Based on the feedbacks given regarding presentation style, it was an overall good presentation as main ideas of cryonics and ethical issues in case study were well explained. However, it was monotonous, which made the presentation slightly boring. Also, the presentation had shown a lack in enthusiasm as it was not lively and had little interaction with audience, which can cause some audiences to lose their concentration during the presentation. For future presentations to be better, interactions with audiences must be improved by asking questions for them to respond as well as making eye contact with them. Also, to ensure that audiences are always focused during the presentation, enthusiasm must be shown in voice, which can be achieved by changing the voice pitch and volume as well as speaking in an appropriate speed. Most importantly, more practice needs to be done to ensure that all necessary corrections are made and to check if there is any insufficient information in the presentation.

Conclusion

Through this case study, it is obvious that cryonics is a field in science that has a lot of uncertainty, which causes a rise in ethical issues and the annoyance of the society. These problems are due to the inadequate research and understanding on this field as well as the lack of professionals to make a good decision and the inefficient communication between medical examiners or doctors and cryonics lab. Hence, more studies should be done and rules on cryonics should be improved for the society to believe that cryonics has a high chance of succeeding in the future.