Cryogenics and the Soul

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Maximilian75

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There are some groups (crazies, or visionaries) that are having their bodies cryogenically frozen when they die in order to maybe one day extend their lifespan. Based on Catholic teaching that the soul exits the body upon death, what’s the Catholic view on if this was possible?

Since the soul is the animating force of the human, would a person’s soul, upon bodily recessitation, re-enter their body? Where would the soul have been during this time?
 
I have wondered this as well, it kind of makes my brain hurt just thinking about it.
 
This is a hypothetical. There is no known technique to freeze the body and no proof-of-concept to revive it later. Also, it is unknown how long-term storage would affect the body. Cell death can occur. In the case of brain cells, if deprived of oxygen long enough, they die. If atomic reconstruction could be done, a destroyed brain might be possible to reconstruct. It is unknown if any memories would survive or other functions related to learning/walking and other skills.
 
My guess is that the soul would remain joined to the body as long as there was the possibility of reviving the cryogenically-frozen body through “natural” means, i.e., not requiring a miracle.
 
But what if it’s possible?

And if it’s not, does the Church disapprove of this?
 
Greetings Maximillian,

Currently, from a medical stand point, when a body is frozen, the water in the cells expands and bursts the cell walls. This includes the brain cells. Medicine would have to come up with a way to correct all that damage before they could start the process of repairing whatever killed the person in the first place.

Also from a medical standpoint, current theory is that memory is held in the firing of nurons between synapses. If the bodyis cooled enough, this would stop and by current theory memory would cease.

From a legal standpoint, currently you cannot freeze someone until they are legaly declared dead. If you do it before then, it is called murder.

Now things change. When I was a child, death happened when the heart quit beating, period. The first heart transpland was done on an American citizen by an American doctor in South Africa because if he had done it in the US, the doctor would have been guilty of murder. He had to stop the mans heart to remove it and install the new one.

Also, when I was a child, medicine considered things we do routinely today as fantasy.

Currently, cryogenic hibernation is an expensive burial, but if those who are frozen have the possability of being reawakened, then I would imagine that their sould stays with their body just as it would in an extended coma.

Remember that God is outside of time. He knows if this will happen to a specific individual.

As for the church, it is an expensive burial but currently, that is all it is.

I hope this helps.

Patrick
AMDG
 
I don’t think the Church would recommend it but neither do I think they would condemn it. It think the Church would simply accept it as an optional, extraordinary form of medical treatment, like the current practice of medically inducing a coma to aid in some recoveries or of medically lowering a patient’s body temperature to near 90 degrees F. for some kinds of surgery.
 
I have not changed my user name. It has been the same since I first created my profile in 2009 when I came back to the Church and needed help remembering what it was to be Catholic. I just (amost) always sign the posts with my given name. Habit, I’mold school.

Patrick
AMDG
 
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