Famous Frozen People

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Some people really do not want to die, believing that whatever ails them (cancer, AIDS, old age) will find a miracle cure in the near or far future. In the 1960s, a method of freezing bodies at the point of death was invented. It is called ‘cryogenics’ or ‘cryonics’ and involves freezing a body so that the cells are in suspended animation. Under current technology, bodies cannot be unfrozen and restored but those who believe in the method also hope that a solution will be found in the future. Here is a list of ten of the most noteworthy cryogenically frozen people.

1. Dr. James Bedford

Dr. James Bedford
Dr. James Bedford

A famous psychology Professor who in 1967 became the first man to be successfully under-go the process of being cryogenically frozen, he took advantage of a promotional deal from Life Extension Society to be their guinea pig for the process. Bedford had kidney cancer that had metastasised into his lungs and had therefore become terminal. He died of illnesses related to his condition and was frozen within a matter of hours of his death. A book about his life as a cryonics candidate was written and the day he died is known as ‘Bedford Day’ within the community.

2. Dick Clair

Dick Clair
Dick Clair

A famous television producer, director and actor who died of AIDS in 1988, he is the highest profile figure to be presently frozen cryogenically. He appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and was also a regular writer for Mary Tyler Moore and Bob Newhart. He had been a firm advocate of the cryonics movement since the 1960s and in 1982 gave $20,000 to the movement and became involved in a legal wrangle to allow people in California the right to be frozen.

3. Ted Williams

Ted Williams
Ted Williams

His was a famous baseball player, playing his entire career for Boston Red Sox and is another of the ‘celebrity’ cryonics candidates. There was a legal wrangle after his death as his Will said that he wished to be cremated. However, family members produced a cocktail napkin on which was written his desire to be frozen. In the end, the napkin won over because nobody could prove that Williams did not write it. He died following a cardiac arrest in 2002.

4. John-Henry Williams

John-Henry Williams
John-Henry Williams

The only son of baseball player Ted Williams (above) died of leukaemia and joined his father in cryonic suspension shortly afterwards. In life he was also a baseball player (with a career that lasted just two years) and also founded the baseball card producer, Ted Williams Card Company. His business ventures included an internet service provider and an adult web hosting company. John-Henry’s lawyer was the person who produced the infamous cocktail napkin. John-Henry died in 2004 ‘ he was just 35.

5. Kim Suozzi

Kim Suozzi
Kim Suozzi

The only instance so far of an incomplete body being frozen, the 23 year old died of cancer in 2013 and when learning about her terminal disease, decided that she wished her head to be frozen after her death. In September 2012, she set up a fund on the internet to raise the money for the project. The decision went against the wishes of her deeply religious parents though Kim herself was open and honest about her agnosticism.

6. Robert Ettinger

Robert Ettinger
Robert Ettinger

This well-known American academic, with degrees in both physics and mathematics, he is best known as the inventor of the cryonics technology. A German Jew given asylum during the war, he renounced Judaism and lived life as an atheist before serving in the US army. With his scientific background and a growing awareness of his own mortality, he conceived of the idea of beating death and wrote to prominent Americans looking for support and funding but it wasn’t taken seriously. He died in 2011 of respiratory failure.

7. Jerry Leaf

Jerry Leaf
Jerry Leaf

He died in 1991 of a heart attack, aged just 50 years old and had been Vice President of the cryonic company ‘Alcor Life Extension Foundation’. He had also been President of the service firm Cryovita at the time of his death. He had been teaching surgery in the 1970s when he founded the Cryovita Labs dedicated to researching potential uses of the technology. Part of his experiments included the results hypothermia on dogs ‘ he noted no or minimal neurological damage. This spurred him on to suggest the viability of cryonics.

8. FM-2030

FM-2030
FM-2030

Though his birth name was Fereidoun M. Esfandiary, he legally changed his name before his death to FM2030 because he hoped to live to his 100th birthday but also because he wished to break the standard naming conventions. He was in life an author, trans-humanist philosopher, futurist and teacher who believed that all of the world’s problems would be solved by 2030. The son of an Iranian diplomat, he died in 2000 of pancreatic cancer ‘ 30 years before his 100th birthday.

9. Thomas K. Donaldson

Thomas K. Donaldson
Thomas K. Donaldson

Another mathematician, he was in life a very vocal advocate of cryonics, founding the Cryonics Association of Australia and the Institute for Neural Biology which funded ground-breaking research on the cryopreservation of brain matter. He is notable for having published the first paper on the science of cryonics. His technology interests was not limited to cryonics though, he also researched anti-aging technology. Like many of his other cryogenically frozen colleagues, in 2006 he too died of cancer.

10. Dora Kent

Dora Kent
Dora Kent

Legally, people cannot be frozen cryogenically while they are still alive ‘ despite the wishes of the patients who want to use it to prevent death. This is a controversial case because it was believed she was murdered to facilitate her cryonic suspension, though official causes of death were recorded as pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease. She is presently the oldest person to have been frozen at the time of death (83)

Conclusion

The case of Dora Kent led to an increase of interest in cryonic suspension. It is part of human nature to want to delay ‘ or possibly even halt ‘ aging and death. The technology is viable to freeze bodies shortly after death but it is yet to be seen whether the technology will ever exist to successfully revive humans to begin a new left decades after their actual ‘death’.

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