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Suspended Animation Tests Successful
chrisb33 writes "Wired News reports that suspended animation tests have been successfully carried out with pigs. From the article: 'Long the domain of transhumanist nut-jobs, cryogenic suspension may be just two years away from clinical trials on humans (presuming someone can solve the sticky ethical problems).'" The pig that was the subject of the article was kept in suspended animation for two hours, and Duggan and his team have successfully suspended hundreds of pigs for an hour at a time. It's still a far cry from a spaceship filled with sleep pods, but would be just the ticket for doctors who need to buy extra time to save lives.
A similar story was posted a while back about U.S. Scientists doing this to dogs.
I just type my sig in the reply form...
...I seem to recall Larry Niven wrote about the possible (mis)uses of suspended animation in his Known Space series of books.
One of Niven's ideas was of using executed criminals as a source for organ replacement; this led to the eventual application of the death penalty for most crimes. The general idea was that this would be made possible by using suspended animation to keep the organs alive and healthy for long periods after the "donor" had been killed, so that a suitable match might be found. Your new liver might come from someone who died years ago, and whose parts were kept in storage until a matching donor like yourself had need of them.
Niven also introduced the idea that illegal organ harvesting could also happen; "organleggers" kidnap and disassemble people to provide a black market service. He was writing this in the 60's, and since then there have been signs of both situations (legal and illegal execution as a source of organs) happening in thw world.
Assuming we could keep body parts alive in suspended animation after the host is dead, we could do exactly what Niven described. The question is, will we?
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
The biggest problem with cryogenic freezing, assuming you get past that whole "freezing things destroys living cells" problem, is that you are not legally allowed to freeze someone until they are dead. That means that currently, you cannot begin cryogenic procedures (like the ones described in TFA) until the person has died of natural causes.
So I guess the idea is that you get cryogenically frozen and then, someday, when society has come up with a cure for death, you will be revived and live long into the future!
Did you ever notice that *nix doesn't even cover Linux?
If they do break the 0*C barrier, it'll likely be at the cost of the patient's life. At the point where water freezes, cell's rupture from the ice crystals forming within. I don't know how the hell they could get around that, unless they can somehow dehydrate the body and rehydrate it on revival (freeze dried pork, yum!)
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
Not so. There exist vitrification compounds that prevent ice crystals from forming, and instead the water congeals into an ice-like substance. That's why embryos can be frozen solid and revived, as can certain tissues destined for transplant.
"The World at the End of Time" by Frederik Pohl
Includes suspended animation, sentient stars, deep (near-C) relativity, and yes... freezer burn.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Quirks and Quarks had an episode on human hibernation discussing the known mechanisms and methods within the realm of immediate possibility. It is well established that cold-water near-drowning victims have survived several hours without oxygen. From an ethical point of view the first human subjects would have to be "last hope" interventions, where death would be inevitable if hibernation were not induced.
In the USA, almost none. Here in the UK there are loads - schools, hospitals, guilds, universities, civic corporations, etc.
Just in my own experience, my first-year room at college was built about 600 years ago and my school was founded about a century later.
At the point where water freezes, cells rupture from the ice crystals forming within.
Actually, cell rupture from the result of sharp-edged crystal formation occurs during the post-warming cycle, not during cool down. This is why rescuers prefer to bring avalanche victims back to normal body temp in as much of a controlled process as possible, in order to avoid as much crystal formation as possible. The most common result is frostbite, of course. In addition, after it happens once, you are best advised to not subject the same body part to another incident, as tissue durability in regards to a repeat is lost.
This has already been done in humans, to a degree. Something similar to this is done in treating brain anuerisms when caught early. They redirect the blood and chill it, slowly lowering the body to 70 degrees. Where, all brain function and heart function stop. By controlling this, they can surgically remove the anuerism before it bursts, which they couldn't do when the person is 'awake'. It's not really suspended animation, because the machine is pumping your blood and breathing for your. Unlike these pigs where I presume the stop everything for the hour or two and don't have a machine.
The ethical considerations of this short term procedure are more legal than anything else. Although there is the hipocratic oath in which doctors swear to do no harm where this practially kills people (even though things like surgery actually violate the oath...). In many states, the definition of dead includes when brain activity ceases. So, procedures like what I mentioned above can not be performed on people in those states. Common use of this procedure would change the definition of dead dramatically. Also ethical from a religious perspective. Although most people would say do this if necessary. What happens if a doctor does this without permission to someone who will not even take a blood donation because of their faith? This also had the unfortunate situation of being a 'neat' idea. 'neat' ideas in a hospital setting are dangerous.
And, you all are ignoring the emphasis on the word sticky in the phrase sticky ethical problems. Filling a chest with salty, nutrient rich, viscous fluid just plain sounds perverse....
So, how many people did you kill today, Doc?
Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....
AVALANCHE VICTIMS?
Perhaps you meant frostbite victims?
Avalanche victims who DIE rarely have hypothermia as a cause of death. They are usually killed by suffocation, CO2 tox, or trauma.
Avalanche victims who LIVE rarely have profound/severe hypothermia because they are rescued relatively quickly (which is why they lived) or they weren't fully buried. Additionally, snow is a good insulator and most avalanche victims are dressed for conditions.
HYPOTHERMIA
Field hypothermia treatment is generally passive rewarming (ie, stop any further heat loss). Active rewarming of hypothermia patients is done in controlled settings due primarily to the time and effort to rewarm the victims, cardiac complications that can arrise from profound/severe hypothermia, and the effectivness of hospital rewarming (gastric lavage, extracorporeal blood rewarming). Field rewarming is very difficult and time consuming, if not damned near impossible. It is generally only done if we cannot evac.
FROSBITE
Frostbite tx is to prevent any further freezing. You can field rewarm if you can do it properly AND be assured that the area will not refreeze during evac because the damage will be compounded. That is different than previously frostbitten, then healed, areas being more prone to frostbite due to circulation issues.