Rows of towering stainless steel cryogenic tanks dominate a vast underground chamber, stretching out under harsh fluorescent lights. Inside these dewars, filled with liquid nitrogen, lie numerous patients preserved in a state of suspended animation.
This isn’t a scene from a science fiction movie; it’s the interior of the European Biostasis Foundation’s first facility in Rafz, Switzerland, where Berlin startup Tomorrow Biostasis stores its long-term care patients.
Once considered the realm of speculative fiction, cryonic preservation is slowly approaching reality. As longevity medicine drives forward biomedical innovation, initiatives to slow, pause, or even prevent mortality are proliferating at an unprecedented rate. In this era of expanding technological possibilities, researchers and entrepreneurs continually push boundaries to actualize what was once thought impossible.
Cryopreservation: The Frozen Frontier of Life Extension?
Cryopreservation stands as a prime example of such innovation – the preservation of whole animals and humans at cryogenic temperatures with the intention of restoring good health and resurrection in the future. As an alternative approach to life extension, companies like Tomorrow Biostasis are making waves in the field, with their recent expansion into the American market signaling the fast-approaching commercialization of cryonics.
The landscape of cryonic preservation is rapidly evolving, with a complex ecosystem of investments, funds, insurance, and foundations emerging. A deep dive into company portfolios reveals that everything is based on the promise of “potential future revival.” These companies offer to preserve individuals for however long it takes until medical technology can extend their lives, essentially positioning themselves as “ambulances to the future.”
Differentiating the Three C’s: Cryopreservation, Cryogenics, and Cryonics
As tensions rise between institutions with conflicting beliefs on the possibilities of cryotechnology, it’s imperative to begin by clarifying the nomenclature in the cryosphere. Understanding the distinctions between three commonly conflated concepts is essential for navigating the nuances of subzero temperature applications and their potential impact on human longevity.
Cryopreservation: This is a technique used to preserve living biological material by storing it at extremely low temperatures. At these temperatures, chemical reactions are slowed to such an extent that cells can be maintained for extended periods. Cryopreservation is widely used in various fields, including medicine, agriculture, and biotechnology.
Cryogenics: This is the science that addresses the production and effects of very low temperatures. Its diverse applications include cryotherapy, cryogenic freezing for storing blood and human organs, and cryogenic cooling for surgical purposes. Cryogenics has established itself as a legitimate field with numerous practical applications in industry and medicine.
Cryonics: Although related to cryogenics, cryonics is considered by many experts to be untenable and often labeled as a pseudoscience. Cryonics is the practice of “preserving life by pausing the dying process” using subfreezing temperatures. According to its proponents, this method preserves patients until future science and medical technology can revive them and restore them to good health.
While cryopreservation and cryogenics are well-established scientific practices, cryonics remains highly controversial. It raises numerous ethical and moral concerns, primarily due to the uncertainty surrounding the possibility of future revival and the potential psychological and societal implications of such a practice.
Defining “Death”: A Shifting Paradigm in the Age of Cryonics
At the heart of the cryonics debate lies a fundamental question: What exactly is death? As research into cryopreservation advances, it becomes clear that the definition of death is not as concrete as once thought.
Alcor, a leader in cryonics based in Scottsdale, Arizona, emphasizes that our understanding of death continues to evolve in the face of advancing medical technologies. According to their website, “the definitions of death change over time as medical understanding and technology improve. Someone who would’ve been declared dead decades ago may still have a chance today.”
In conventional medicine, cessation of life is typically declared when the heart stops beating. However, this definition fails to account for the complex biological processes that continue in the brain, cells, and tissues even after cardiac arrest. It’s this window of opportunity that cryonicists seek to exploit.
Cryonics proponents believe that the process of decay can be halted immediately after the heart stops beating, preserving viable biological materials with the hope of restoring full functionality in the future. As the Cryonics Institute states, “We don’t put in this effort for a ‘dead person,’ but for a patient we feel is in the first stages of the dying process who can be stabilized indefinitely and eventually saved.”
This perspective reframes death not as a definitive moment but as a process that isn’t inevitable or irreversible if intervention occurs quickly enough. The goal is to stabilize the patient at cryonic temperatures, effectively pausing the dying process until future scientific advancements may enable revival.
The Cryonics Industry: A Growing Global Phenomenon
Once a niche field relegated to the fringes of science and science fiction, the cryonics industry has experienced significant growth in recent years. As of late 2023, over 500 people had been cryogenically preserved, with estimates ranging from 1,500 to 5,500 individuals signed up for future cryopreservation. Furthermore, growing interest is reflected in the expanding research efforts and the emergence of new players in the space.
At present, two major organizations continue to dominate the cryonics landscape in the United States. Alcor, based in Arizona, currently has 234 patients in cryopreservation and boasts a membership of 1,444. The Cryonics Institute, located in Clinton Township, Michigan, houses 250 patients in cryostasis within its 7,000-square-foot facility. These numbers, while still relatively small, represent a significant increase from the industry’s early days.
The appeal of cryonics has reportedly attracted high-profile individuals, with some sources claiming that tech luminaries like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel are among those who have expressed interest in the technology. While these claims remain unverified, they underscore the growing mainstream attention that cryonics is receiving.
Increasing events and investments in the cryopreservation market further signal the industry’s momentum. The Global Cryonics Summit, held on July 20-21, 2024, in Miami, Florida, served as a platform for showcasing advancements and attracting potential partners. At this summit, Tomorrow Biostasis, a Berlin-based biotechnology company specializing in human cryopreservation, made its first big stateside appearance, signaling its entry into the U.S. market.
Today, Aspiration. Tomorrow, Bio.
Tomorrow Biostasis has rapidly established itself as a significant player in the cryonics field, claiming to be the fastest-growing provider worldwide with over 600 “active members” – though the exact definition of “active” remains unclear.
A mere two months ago, Tomorrow Bio made its ambitious entry into the U.S. market, offering services in New York, California, and Florida. This marks the first step in what the company optimistically describes as a “nationwide rollout planned for mid-2025.” Dr. Emil Kendziorra, Tomorrow Bio’s CEO & Co-Founder, declared in a press release, “Launching Tomorrow Bio in the U.S. is a huge milestone for us. The goal remains to offer high-quality service with a modern approach.” The definition of “high-quality” in a service without successful revivals remains open to interpretation.
Breaking Down The Cryopreservation Process
To understand the company’s approach, examining its core services is crucial. Tomorrow Bio’s services center around its SST procedure (Standby, Stabilization, and Transport), a 24/7 service reminiscent of a luxury concierge for the afterlife.
Standby refers to when one of the company’s SST teams waits at the location of a member who is likely to pass away soon. While exact times of death are difficult to predict, most cases have some forewarning, Tomorrow Bio writes on its website. SST teams are on call 24/7 to dispatch to a member in critical condition and wait onsite to begin the stabilizing procedures after legal pronouncement. This standby period can last for several days or even weeks.
The company emphasizes early notification for standby requests, warning on their website, “DO NOT wait until the patient is close to legal death.” Instances for which requests are “acceptable” include: “initial diagnosis of a terminal disease, sudden worsening of a serious medical condition and/or if medical staff is worried about the current condition of the patient.”
Stabilization is an intricate procedure performed by SST experts to begin the cryopreservation process post-mortem or, rather, post-legal death. Patients undergo what Tomorrow Bio terms “Whole-Body Field Cryoprotection” before transportation to their long-term storage facility at the European Biostasis Foundation.
Although it comes without a disclaimer, the statement about the final stage of the company’s service says it all: “Your storage here is indefinite until scientific and technological advancements enable the possibility of revival.”
Science Versus Skepticism
Although the promise of life extension is enticing, it’s essential to scrutinize the scientific basis of these claims. While Tomorrow Bio and similar companies continue to push the boundaries of cryonics technology and services, they simultaneously test the limits of scientific credibility. The growing interest in cryonics raises complex questions about the future of human life extension, the ethics of selling unproven technologies, and the blurring line between cutting-edge science and science fiction.
As it stands, the science behind human cryopreservation and revival remains highly speculative. The field lacks peer-reviewed studies demonstrating the successful revival of complex organisms after long-term cryopreservation. Critics argue that companies like Tomorrow Bio offer consumers little more than expensive hope, backed by optimistic interpretations of preliminary research.
Nobel Prize-winning biologist Venki Ramakrishnan points out, “Each cell in the deceased person’s body is undergoing dramatic biochemical changes due to the lack of oxygen and nutrients so that the state of a cryogenically frozen body is not the state of a live human being.” This fundamental challenge underscores why many in the scientific community consider cryonics a pseudoscience, raising significant ethical and moral concerns.
The cryonics industry is asking its clients to place their faith – and their bodies – in future breakthroughs in regenerative medicine. Some, like James Bedford, a former psychology professor, and the first cryogenically frozen patient, have already been waiting for 55 years. As the industry grows, more individuals are joining this queue for a future that may never arrive.
The Frozen Road Ahead
As the field of cryonics continues to evolve, it’s crucial to maintain a clear-eyed perspective on its current capabilities and future potential. Despite the optimistic claims of companies like Tomorrow Bio, the stark reality remains: the technology to revive a cryogenically preserved human simply does not exist.
The gap between the current state of cryopreservation technology and the ability to revive a complex organism like a human being is vast and filled with unknowns, raising profound ethical concerns and philosophical questions with no clear answer.
In the end, while cryonics presents an alluring vision for a future life capable of transcending death, it’s a future that is, for now, firmly in the realm of science fiction. Ultimately, only time will tell whether those currently in cryogenic stasis will one day awaken to a world reborn, or remain stored indefinitely, monuments to humanity’s relentless quest to defy its mortality.