Since the age of thirteen, Joseph Kowalsky has had a fascination with life after deathpondering ways to extend its existence indefinitely.
Today, Kowalsky, now 59, is among about 2,000 people enrolled at the Cryonics Institute in Clinton Township, Michiganbetting on a future where death is not the end.
Chilling prospect of immortality
Cryonics, the process at the heart of Kowalsky's hopes, involves preserving human bodies at ultra-low temperatures in the expectation that future science will one day revive them.
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Shortly after someone dies, organizations like the Cryonics Institute use a cardiopulmonary ventilator, circulate a medical-grade antifreeze in the blood, and suspend the body in aluminum pods filled with liquid nitrogen.
Dennis Kowalski, the current president of the Cryonics Institute (and no relation to Joseph Kowalsky), told Fox News that more than 250 individuals at the Michigan facility are currently “suspended.”
Cryonics involves preserving human bodies at extremely low temperatures in the hope that science will one day bring them back to life. (Cryonics Institute)
Can defying death be affordable?
The Cryonics Institute is just one player in a rapidly growing industry.
Alcor, the oldest in the world Based in Scottsdale, Arizona, the cryonics company has a state-of-the-art facility housing more than 200 individuals.
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For those who choose to preserve the entire body, the price tag is $200,000, while preserving just the brain costs $80,000.
Alcor CEO James Arrowood debunks the idea that cryonics is only for the wealthy, insisting that many customers use life insurance in order to cover the costs.
More than 250 individuals are currently on “suspension” at the Michigan facility, the president of the Cryonics Institute told Fox News. (Cryonics Institute)
“About 80% of the people who sign up are middle class,” Arrowood told Fox News.
He pointed out that its clientele includes notable figures such as baseball legend Ted Williams, whose head and body were cryopreserved separately.
Sceptics sow doubt
Critics dismiss cryonics as speculative and unproven, labeling it an “iceberg plan” without scientific support.
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“It's a sad case of people being seduced by a very understandable dream of resurrection,” Clive Coen of King's College London told Fox News.
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The professor of neuroscience expressed concern about the damage done during the conservation and revival process, warning that “there billions of mini-strokes in every millimeter of brain tissue” because antifreeze cannot penetrate the complex landscape of the brain.
Hope remains eternally alive for those who brave death
There is currently no scientific evidence or successful case of a human being recovered from a cryonically preserved state.
For those who choose to preserve the entire body, the price tag is $200,000, while preserving just the brain costs $80,000. (Cryonics Institute)
Despite the skepticism, Joseph Kowalsky, who previously worked at the Cryonics Institute, remains undeterred.
'Worst case scenario, I'm still dead… And the upside? It could be potential life-saving medical technology,” he said.
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As science and ethics continue to grapple with the implications of cryonics, individuals like Kowalsky exemplify a deep-seated hope to defy mortality, one frozen body at a time.
Andres del Aguila and Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.
