Running head: CRYOGENICS 1

Cryogenics

Mikayla N. Lietzke

Swan Valley High School

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Cryogenics

There are people in this world who suffer from terminal illnesses before they have fully

lived out their life, doomed and without a cure. However, Cryogenics is a possible solution to

this problem. With cryogenics, the terminally ill can be put into a state of deamination to

preserve their body until a cure for their illness is found. In Mary Shelley’s book, ​Frankenstein​,

the character Victor Frankenstein planned to make the world a better place by curing all illness

and disease, but failed miserably, and instead unleashed a monster upon the world. This same

sort of instance is now occurring as the popularity of cryonics rises. Cryonics may be a good idea

in theory, yet is it something worth pursuing? By examining the benefits, the drawbacks, and the

ethics behind cryogenics, it can be determined whether or not cryogenics should be continued in

our society.

There are multiple benefits to the usage of cryogenics. For example, cryogenics are

sometimes used to preserve ovarian tissue in young female cancer patients. In a study by the

Journal of Ovarian Research, a sample group of ovarian tissue that was stored for eighteen years

was shown to still have good reproduction and fertility rates (Fabbri, Macciocca, Vicenti,

Pasquinelli, Caprara, Valente, Paradisi, 2016). This sort of preservation would allow the patients

involved to be able to still have children later on down the line if they still choose to. Another

benefit to cryogenics is the ability for it to be able to preserve human embryos and have them

still go on to be healthy, functional human children even after being frozen for years (Shanbhag,

2017). This could help unprepared parents by allowing them to be able to technically keep their

child, yet hold off on parenthood until they are ready to bear that mantle.
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Although Cryogenics has several benefits, it also has multiple drawbacks. In an

assessment of this topic done by Vagish Kumar L Shanbhag, they have found that bodies that

have been cryogenically frozen run a high risk of being damaged due to the formation of ice

crystals on the bodies (Shanbhag, 2017). This isn’t unexpected since the bodies are placed in

liquid nitrogen at -135°C (George, 2017). However, if enough ice crystals form on the body, the

body could become so severely damaged to the point where the person exceeds the point of

being revived in the future. Another drawback to cryogenics, is that science fiction may have

warped the public’s perception on the science. It is believed that as cryogenics becomes further

popular, it may promote euthanasia (mercy killing) among younger generations as a way for

them to ensure that their bodies are preserved before old age or disease sets in(George, 2017).

This may not yet be a problem in our current day and age, but is believed to become more

common as cryogenics advances further.

The ethics behind cryogenics is widely speculated to be controversial among the general

public. The largest ethical issue would be the belief that cryogenics interferes with religious

beliefs (Shanbhag, 2017). The main interference being that cryogenics would potentially

postpone entering heaven, being reincarnated, and/or joining friends and family in the afterlife.

Cryogenics is also not environmentally friendly. Oftentimes, all the chemicals used in the

cryogenic freezing process are not disposed of properly, and are left to be drained out into local

water sources (Fabbri, Macciocca, Vicenti, Pasquinelli, Caprara, Valente, Paradisi, 2016).

By examining the benefits, drawbacks, and ethics of cryogenics it can be concluded that

the practice should only be advanced for usage in minor cases of preservation. I do think it’s a

good idea for cryogenics to be used in terms of small-scale preservation, like the ovarian tissue
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example previously aforementioned. However, I don’t think cryogenics should be used to

preserve entire human beings, due to the risk of physical bodily damage and euthanasia. If we

keep to the small-scale preservation methods, I do believe cryogenics can become highly

successful in our society. But, if we keep trying to take things up a notch, cryogenics will likely

become as out of control as Victor Frankenstein’s monster. In the end, we can hypothesize all we

want about the outcome of advancing cryogenics, yet we will never know until it may be too late

to return.
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