According to a July 18, 2002 Ask Yahoo post, “Cryonics is still considered a fringe phenomenon by the scientific establishment.” Cryonics not to be confused with cryogenics is the “process of freezing and storing the body of a diseased, recently deceased person to prevent tissue decomposition so that at some future time the person might be brought back to life upon development of new medical cures.

I found it interesting that baseball great Ted Williams has undergone the procedure and is presently at a facility in Arizona. Though this is the stuff of science fiction many people are hoping it will be science fact. The problem that has arisen out of this particularly technology is the inability to “defrost” the person in question (or any human tissue for that matter) safely without thawing he or she. So at the risk of sounding crude, it’s like taking something out of the freezer and leaving it on the counter and then working on it. There are risks including contamination, decomposition and cell damage and death among others.

Though I tackle this subject in my book Cold Warriors, I often wonder would it be wise to do such a thing. How is one to prevent abuse of the technology? And who would we want to freeze any way much less thaw? How would the person in question be acclimated into society if they are considered legally dead?

For now the question is academic but what if…