I debated a long time about whether Cryonics should be considered an option as a final resting place.  The people who believe in cryonics (cryonicists) don’t believe this is final at all.  They believe that progress in medicine will allow them to be restored and reanimated.   The cryonicists have a pretty good argument.  The Cryonics Institute (www.cryonics.org) mentions some long ago claims that didn’t hold up.  In 1885 Lord Kelvin declared that “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible”.  And it was believed by most scientists just a couple of decades ago that cloning could never be accomplished. So, what is this process and will it work?  No one knows if it will work because no one has been reanimated yet.

But there are plenty of members who believe this will be possible.  The Cryonics Institute offers cryopreservation services.  “As soon as possible after a legal death, a member patient is infused with a substance to prevent ice formation, cooled to a temperature where physical decay essentially stops and is then maintained indefinitely in cryostasis (i.e., stored in liquid nitrogen)”.    The American Cryonics Society (www.americancryonics.org) is the oldest organization around (1969) dealing in cryonics and its members have arranged for their own cryonic suspensions upon their deaths.  Their website offers a very informative area called “Freeze a Jolly Good Fellow”.  It debunks some of the myths surrounding cryonics and gives advice on how to arrange your own suspension.  The third entity I found is the Alcor Life Extension Foundation.  They invite you to form your own conclusions about this technology.  Their website is vast and well organized.  Here’s a paragraph which sums it up nicely; “What Cryonics Is.  Cryonics is a speculative life support technology that seeks to preserve human life in a state that will be viable and treatable by future medicine.  It is expected that future medicine will include mature nanotechnology, and the ability to heal at the cellular and molecular levels.”  Alcor is located in Scottsdale, Arizona and was founded in 1972.  Get more information at www.alcor.org

The Cryonic suspensions mentioned here ranged from around $45,000 up to $150,000 depending on whether an entire body or just a head is suspended.  It’s believed that about 100 people are currently in cryonic suspension, awaiting reanimation.