Cryonics – 3 year old gets a chance to live again

What you are about to read is not science fiction but a true story. Following her death from brain cancer, the parents of Matheryn Naovaratpong (almost 3 years old from Thailand pictured above) flew her to the United States in a purpose built capsule for cryo-preservation at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. The goal of cryo-preservation is to revive a person some time in the future when medical science possesses the technology to restore them to optimum health. The belief is that ones identity is defined by their memories and associated personality. In essence the major goal of cryo-preservation is to preserve the brain. It is already known that the brain can stop functioning, while being able to recover later with full long-term memory retained. The hope is that the freezing process using advanced cryoprotectants does not damage this possibility. Basic experiments have already shown that a brain slice retrieved from cryo-preservation is able to carry an electrical signal when attached to a meter. Matheryn was flown to the United States as cryonics facilities are not available in Asia. Two United States based organisations (the Alcor Life Extension Foundation and the Cryonics Institute) are leading the charge. The more people that embrace this opportunity, the more advanced it will become. In the UK there is at least some co-ordinated planning in place. Cryonics UK is a non-profit organisation that will prepare and ship the body to the patients chosen cryonics facility abroad.