Would you cryogenically freeze a relative?

Boycey0211

Boycey0211

Boycey0211

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So, just read this article:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-34311502

Parents choose to cryogenically freeze their daughter is what I first read. Initially I though, OK, can see at least some logic in that as there may be a cure at some point for the illness she has.

Luckily I didnt miss the part where they removed her brain.

Yup, they've only frozen the brain. Pumped an anti freeze solution through it and put it on ice indefinitely until a solution (and presumably a fresh donor body) can be found.

ASSUMING a solution is found, do they just wait for a dead baby and perform a brain transplant?

I mean theres hope and then theres hope, would any of you GD'ers do this to a relative or have it done to you??

Personally, I wouldn't have it done to a relative at this point in time as theres no hint of a positive outcome, but maybe in the future.
 
Think at this point of our human development I would just have far too many questions before committing to something like this. Biggest one being is if anything of the person would actually be preserved even if you had the technology to "restart" the brain or you're simply stopping bacteria from doing its work on the tissue.
 
No, for a variety of reasons. Main ones being, it'll take to long for the tech. You'll be dead by the time your daughter could be resurrected.
You clearly need therapy as you aren't dealing with the death.
The current freezing method, almost certainly destroys it anyway.
 
Well they say that have 'grieved' for the loss and seem to just be living in hope.

I mean lets face it, I couldnt have called the amount of tech we have availiable today ten years ago.

Are we really that far away from cyrogenics you think?
 
Well as above the first issue and question I'd have is if there would actually be anything useful left of the brain with the current methods of "preservation". I remember reading about this a few years ago and it sounded pretty extreme for human tissue.
 
I understand how upset the parents are but for goodness sake...

sometimes you just have to let go and accept they're gone. Best thing they can do at this point is have another child. No it won't replace the one thats lost but it would give them something else to focus their energy and attention on.

Boycey0211 said:
Personally, I wouldn't have it done to a relative at this point in time as theres no hint of a positive outcome, but maybe in the future.
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You cannot transplant a brain, period. Its not the same as a heart or a liver. There is currently no way to transplant a living brain never mind a dead one Central Nervous System tissue simply does not regenerate, if it did there would be no such thing as paraplegics and there is no sign that this will change in the near future. Even if you could repair/regenerate the insane amount of connections there are millions of neural connections in the brain and all need to be correctly wired up. Connecting up the nerves and blood vessals in a transplanted hand simply doesn't come close.
 
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Will make grieving difficult for the parents and I don't think I would be able to cope with that being in their shoes, but a step for science always has some positives.
 
Blackjack Davy said:
I understand how upset the parents are but for goodness sake...

sometimes you just have to let go and accept they're gone. Best thing they can do at this point is have another child. No it won't replace the one thats lost but it would give them something else to focus their energy and attention on.



You cannot transplant a brain, period. Its not the same as a heart or a liver. There is currently no way to transplant a living brain never mind a dead one Central Nervous System tissue simply does not regenerate, if it did there would be no such thing as paraplegics and there is no sign that this will change in the near future. Even if you could repair/regenerate the insane amount of connections there are millions of neural connections in the brain and all need to be correctly wired up. Connecting up the nerves and blood vessals in a transplanted hand simply doesn't come close.
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Oh yeah I agree it was the brain bit I found most strange, I mean in my mind total body cryonjenics will be a reality (and I'm talking a fair amount of time) before a brain transplant is and I know thats not a reality unless theres a massive breakthrough in my lifetime.

I mean the heart is controlled by a (relatively) simple electrical signal, whereas the brain consists of billions of different ones all meaning something different, memories, impulses, cravings -everything.

Surely all that is lost in a long term storage solution?
 
If I was going to have just my brain frozen then I'd want it preserved and then fired out into deep space, preferably with some form of transmitter attached to the pod.

I reckon there's just as much chance of it being picked up by some advanced alien race as there is of my cryo-brain still being viable for transplant into a newly grown body God knows how many centuries, or millennia, down the line on Earth. That's assuming it's even still around, and not destroyed in some future conflict.
 
Cosimo said:
No, who knows what kind of mad thing the brain would power.
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rather wishful thinking at the moment, tis going to cause a lot of damage which means potentially reanimating her is many years away and frankly people who are alive then might care about trying it about as much as we'd care about an Egyptian mummy...

I'm not sure how they'd even be able to attempt to repair the damage... perhaps having a whole swarm of thousands of nano robots repairing individual connections, plus they'd require the technology to perform a brain transplant... tis hundreds of years away if at all, some connections are going to be so damaged that even with a swarm of nano robots they're still going to have to predict/guess where some connections likely were

maybe one day in the future someone will develop a method of interfacing with the brain and steadily replacing brain tissue with a more robust artificial replacement over time thus preserving someone that way...
 
You can't just turn on a brain.

As far as I'm aware brain is more like RAM than hard disk

If it is turned off its wiped? It isn't just a physical structure. It's an active process to maintain a 'person'
 
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