The False Hope of Cryonics Have you ever thought about living for a hundred years or more? If current beliefs prove possible, they could be a possibility in the future. Alcor, a life extension foundation, says cryonics could make it possible to resurrect people who die in the future. Think about it, you could see how current problems will be solved in the future. The only problem is that cryonics may cause more problems than it solves in the future. Cryonics is the process of freezing body parts and organs for future use. Right now they are doing full body and neurosuspension. As soon as the heartbeat and breathing of a member who has paid for this procedure stops, an Alcor transport team takes care of the patient. Circulation and breathing are artificially restored and the patient is cooled and transported to Alcor facilities. The patient is treated with medications to minimize frostbite injury and is then further cooled to the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (-320°F, -196°C) (Alcor, 1). Neurosuspensions are the freezing of the human head and brain. The reason for this is that it is much cheaper and all other body parts are believed to be replaceable by transplant. Alcor charges $50,000 for neurosuspensions and $120,000 for whole-body suspensions (Alcor, 27). The first problem to consider is the current and possible future problems of the population. Alcor argues that it is impossible for overpopulation to occur because the earth is nowhere near its limits to support life safely and comfortably (Alcor, 52). If this is true, why does China currently only allow couples to have two children and require them to obtain a license before doing so, rather than simply allowing them to have as many as they want? I guess what I'm trying to say is that areas of this world are already overpopulated. There are 23,000,000 people in the United States age sixty-five or older (Doherty, age 73). If every person age sixty-five and older were to be frozen and then restored at a future date and this continued to increase every year, it would seem obvious that when and if technology ever came along where these people could be resurrected, that there would be definitely an overpopulation.