Cryonic Preservation

People who are afraid of death, feel like they weren’t done yet, or feel like their life was stolen…and of course, have a lot of money, might consider a way to somehow prolong or even restart their lives…years after their death, when a cure for their terminal condition can be found. I don’t mean to sound like a sceptic, but…well, I’m extremely skeptical on this one. I simply don’t believe that freezing a body for years and years and then “restarting” it, curing it, and putting it back out there to live again, is even remotely possible. I suppose I could be wrong, but I don’t think so, still, I guess cloning wasn’t possible either. The thing that really settles it for me, is that no one is going to live on this Earth forever, and that would be the next logical step in the Cryonic Preservation scenario.

James Hiram Bedford was an American psychology professor at the University of California and author of several books on occupational counseling. Bedford was born on April 20, 1893, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to Hiram Johnson Bedford and Fanny L Bryant. Bedford was married twice. His first wife, Anna Chandler Rice, passed away in 1917, the same year they wed. In 1920, he married his second wife, Ruby McLagan, and together they had five children: Doris, Donald, Frances, Barbara, and Norman. James Bedford also had a passion for photography and loved to travel extensively. He became the first person to have his body cryopreserved after his legal death on January 12, 1967.

In June 1965, Evan Cooper, who’s contributions to cryonics were significant, as he was one of the first advocates of the concept and founded the Life Extension Society, the first cryonics organization in the world. His book, “Immortality: Physically, Scientifically, Now,” published in 1962, was a pivotal work that laid the groundwork for cryonics. Cooper, of course fully believed his theory, but as it has never been proven, we may never know. Cooper stepped away from the cryonics and life extension movement in 1969. His former wife, Mildred, said he left due to overload, burnout, and a feeling it wouldn’t be a viable option in his lifetime. In his later years, Cooper took to sailing, but in October 1982, he was lost at sea in the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1965, Life Extension Society (LES) offered to preserve one person free of charge, announcing that they had basic facilities for emergency short-term freezing and storage of humans. They promised to freeze, at no cost, the first person who wanted and needed cryonic suspension. Bedford didn’t take the offer then but later used his own money. He had kidney cancer that spread to his lungs, which was untreatable at the time. Bedford died in 1967 at the age of 73. In his will, he left $100,000 for cryonics research, and his wife and son spent even more in court defending both his will and his cryopreservation against challenges from other relatives.

Bedford’s body was frozen in hopes of one day being revived, with Alcor’s Mike Darwin saying it happened about two hours after he died from cardiorespiratory arrest caused by metastasized kidney cancer. Preservation was carried out by Robert Prehoda, author of the 1969 book Suspended Animation, along with physician and biophysicist Dante Brunol and Robert Nelson, president of the Cryonics Society of California. Nelson later wrote “We Froze the First Man” about the event. Compared to today’s use of cryoprotectants, the methods were rudimentary…Bedford was injected with a mix of 15% dimethyl sulfoxide and 85% Ringer’s solution, which was once thought to be effective for long-term cryogenics but likely didn’t protect his brain. Vitrification wasn’t available yet, further lowering any chance of recovery. Initially kept at Edward Hope’s Cryo-Care facility in Phoenix for two years, he was moved in 1969 to the Galiso facility in California, then in 1973 to Trans Time near Berkeley until 1977, before being stored by his son for many years. Today, Bedford’s body is still preserved at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, even though I don’t think anyone believes he can be revived. Nevertheless, because his body was “technically” preserved or stored in suspended animation first, I guess they have that claim to fame…for whatever value it may have.