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Cryonics

Why would anyone spend tens of thousands of dollars to have their body frozen at death, in the hope of being brought back to life sometime in the future? Could it ever happen?

Can deep-frozen bodies ever return from the dead? Before death you can express a choice about what happens afterwards. Burial perhaps? Cremation? Or something else? Maybe you could ask for your body to be pumped full of anti-freeze, then suspended, upside down, in a vat of liquid nitrogen at 196 degrees below zero, in the hope that the medicine of the future can resurrect you. Is this wishful thinking or the secret to a very, very long life?

Mike Williams explores the science, the motivation and the ethics behind cryonics and asks whether frozen human bodies will ever be fit for a new life.

Contributors:
Peggy Jackson, hospice social worker
Robin Hanson, associate professor of economics, George Mason University, USA
Danila Medvedev, co-founder and deputy director, KrioRus
Barry Fuller, professor of surgical sciences and low temperature medicine, University College London Medical School
Clive Coen, professor of neuroscience, King's College, London
Nils Hoppe, professor of ethics and law in the life sciences, University of Hannover, Germany

Presenter: Mike Williams
Producer: Sally Abrahams

(Photo: Peggy Jackson and Robin Hanson. Credit: 大象传媒 Copyright - contributors gave us permission to use this image)

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18 minutes

Last on

Mon 30 Jan 2017 07:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Fri 27 Jan 2017 19:32GMT
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  • Fri 27 Jan 2017 21:32GMT
  • Sun 29 Jan 2017 11:32GMT
  • Mon 30 Jan 2017 02:32GMT
  • Mon 30 Jan 2017 03:32GMT
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  • Mon 30 Jan 2017 05:32GMT
  • Mon 30 Jan 2017 07:32GMT

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