European Biostasis Foundation, Riehen, Canton of Basel-Stadt, Switzerland.
PLoS One. 2021 Jan 7;16(1):e0244980. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244980. eCollection 2021.
Medical cryopreservation is the speculative practice of using low temperatures and medical-grade cryoprotective agents to halt the decay of a recently-deceased person's brain and body for the prospect of future resuscitation and restoration of function. We conducted a survey of 1,487 internet users in the United States to measure familiarity with, interest in, beliefs about, and attitudes towards cryopreservation. The majority of respondents (75%) had previously heard of the topic. Respondents tended to underestimate the cost of cryopreservation and number of previous cases but overestimate the number of providers. While many respondents expressed interest in signing up (20%) or had actively researched the topic (21%), a much smaller fraction have decided to be cryopreserved (6%). This level of interest is much greater than the number of previous preservation cases would indicate. We found that respondents' attitudes towards death significantly correlated with their general sentiments towards the topic, with those expressing a desire for longer life or to see the future being more interested and positively inclined. Fear of death was not associated with interest in cryopreservation. Negative sentiments towards cryopreservation were less common than respondents perceived. For example, 14% of respondents believed that "most people" think cryopreservation should be illegal, but only 4% of respondents actually did. Many respondents (42%) were pessimistic regarding the likelihood of cryopreservation being successful, but the mean estimate of time until revival of cryopreserved bodies would be possible was 82 years.
医学冷冻保存是一种推测性的实践，它使用低温和医学级别的冷冻保护剂来阻止最近去世的人的大脑和身体的腐烂，以期未来能够复苏和恢复功能。我们对美国的 1487 名互联网用户进行了一项调查，以衡量他们对冷冻保存的熟悉程度、兴趣、信念和态度。大多数受访者（75%）以前听说过这个话题。受访者往往低估了冷冻保存的成本和之前的案例数量，但高估了提供者的数量。虽然许多受访者表示有兴趣注册（20%）或已经积极研究了这个话题（21%），但只有一小部分人决定进行冷冻保存（6%）。这种程度的兴趣远远超过了之前保存案例的数量。我们发现，受访者对死亡的态度与他们对该主题的总体看法显著相关，那些表达了对长寿或看到未来的渴望的人更感兴趣，并持积极态度。对死亡的恐惧与对冷冻保存的兴趣无关。对冷冻保存的负面情绪并不像受访者认为的那么普遍。例如，14%的受访者认为“大多数人”认为冷冻保存应该是非法的，但只有 4%的受访者实际上这样认为。许多受访者（42%）对冷冻保存成功的可能性持悲观态度，但预计冷冻保存的身体可能复活的平均时间为 82 年。
