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: 91热爆 Copyright - contributors gave us permission to use this image)
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- Fri 27 Jan 2017 19:32GMT91热爆 World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Fri 27 Jan 2017 20:32GMT91热爆 World Service Online, Americas and the Caribbean, Australasia, Europe and the Middle East & UK DAB/Freeview only
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- Sun 29 Jan 2017 11:32GMT91热爆 World Service except News Internet
- Mon 30 Jan 2017 02:32GMT91热爆 World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Mon 30 Jan 2017 03:32GMT91热爆 World Service Online, Europe and the Middle East & UK DAB/Freeview only
- Mon 30 Jan 2017 04:32GMT91热爆 World Service East Asia & South Asia only
- Mon 30 Jan 2017 05:32GMT91热爆 World Service Australasia
- Mon 30 Jan 2017 07:32GMT91热爆 World Service East and Southern Africa & Europe and the Middle East only
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