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CNN Live Today
Cryonics: Fact or Fiction?
Aired July 09, 2002 - 13:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Will Ted Williams' body be frozen or cremated? That could be decided by the courts. The attorney for Williams' daughter says the baseball legend wanted his ashes scattered over the Florida Keys. However, the daughter says her half-brother has shipped the remains to an Arizona lab to be preserved.
Let's bring in our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, once again, to explain how this process, first of all, would work.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, I have to tell you that most of us think about this through science fiction. You see it in the movies...
PHILLIPS: True.
COHEN: ... many movies actually -- it's kind of amazing -- show people being frozen in the hopes that after death they would be revived. Here you see "Demolition Man." Sylvester Stallone is being frozen. I don't know what all of those flashes of light are, but there he is suspended.
PHILLIPS: That adds to the drama.
COHEN: Right. That's the drama. That's a good reason. But is it realistic? Well, 49 people who have decided to freeze themselves at the Alcor facility in Arizona say, yes, they have had themselves frozen. There are four people in each of those vats. Really truly, four people in each of those vats being suspended upside down. The aim is, is that some day, there will be a cure for whatever killed them, and that they would be cured and revived. Here are the people's pictures, all of the people that we are showing now are the people who after death are now suspended upside down in those metal vats.
But how realistic is it? Well, even the company itself says that cryonics is still an unproven procedure with many uncertainties, and that's from the company that does the freezing. We asked medical ethicist, Art Caplan, and he published on this issue many times, and we said, "What are the chances that this would work, that you would be able to cure the person and revive them?" And he said, "0 percent, this is a scam."
Now, of course, Alcor, which does the freezing, says, Oh, we think the technology is on the horizon, and we think we'll be able to revive these people. But I have to tell you that other people I have talked to say that they think this is entirely crazy and won't work.
I want to add that some of those people, who you saw their pictures before, Kyra, they have also had their pets frozen...
PHILLIPS: Oh.
COHEN: ... because just in case they come back to life, they would like Fido there with them.
PHILLIPS: Yes, of course...
COHEN: Yes.
PHILLIPS: ... they want to be together. You know, on a serious note, when someone dies...
COHEN: Right.
PHILLIPS: ... I mean, more than anything, you want a loved one to be able to come back.
COHEN: Right.
PHILLIPS: So I can sort of understand why they would want to attempt to do something like this. How expensive is it?
COHEN: It's expensive. It costs quite a bit of money. I mean, for example, if you want to be suspended and frozen in Alcor, you have to spend $150 to sign up, $400 a year thereafter, and then $120,000 once you actually die and want to be frozen. Life insurance policies usually pay for that. In other words, you sign over your life insurance policy to the company to take care of it.
PHILLIPS: And they take care of it.
COHEN: Right. And they take care of it for you.
PHILLIPS: All right. So besides reviving someone, someone that would want to do this, DNA, you don't have to freeze the entire body just to get a little DNA if you want to have little Ted Williams running around.
COHEN: Right, right.
PHILLIPS: Right?
COHEN: That's what I have heard people say is, Oh, well, the family wants to freeze him, so that they can use his DNA, and they can make a whole bunch of Ted Williamses, a whole bunch of World Series winners. Well, if the intent is just to clone Ted Williams, they didn't need to freeze his body. They could have gotten some DNA by swabbing the inside of his cheek or saving some skin from before he died. And if, and that's a big if, if cloning turns out to be a reality, they could clone off of that. They wouldn't need to save his whole body.
PHILLIPS: Interesting. Well, I know we'll be continuing to follow this story, so...
(CROSSTALK)
COHEN: Right, exactly, to see what they do with him.
PHILLIPS: Yes. All right. I know.
COHEN: I know.
PHILLIPS: It's kind of freaky.
COHEN: It kind of makes you go ooh (ph).
PHILLIPS: Yes. All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.
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