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Suspended Animation Tests Successful

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the rip-van-winkle dept.

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.

2 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. Blown in half by Sithech · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually, suspended animation is exactly what WOULD save a guy who was blown in half. It buys you time do do as complex a surgical procedure as you want, over as long a time as it takes to put the key bits back together again. You get a bloodless field to work in and can do microsurgical anastamoses to your hearts content.

    So blown-in-half guy gets aorta and cava put back together; bone grafting and wiring or rodding his spinal column and an anastamosis of the spinal cord or cord amputation; clean up the damage to the kidneys and pancreas; do splenectomy if needed; multiple gut anastamoses and/or resections; and layered closures of the whole body wall. Nothing we don't do now - we just don't have time to do it.

  2. Re:If you want ethical problems... by hackstraw · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Not only are ehtical issues having to be addressed, but legal ones as well.

    IANAL, but from the article, "brain activity has ceased", which as I understand it is the legal and medical definition of human death.

    With the recent news like the Kevorkian issue, what is being alive or dead legally or ethically today?