Father signs whole family up to be frozen when they die in hope they will be brought back to life
A dad has signed his whole family up to be cryogenically frozen when they die.
Dennis Kowalski hopes that the step will give him, wife Maria and their three sons Jacob, 19, Danny, 17 and James, 16, a “second chance at life”.
The paramedic, who is the president of the Cryonics Institute, said he heard about the process when he was a teenager and later signed up with the institute.
“That was 20 years ago now,” the 49-year-old said.
“Now my wife and three teenage sons are also all signed up.
“We all understand that nothing is guaranteed but the future is unknown, things that were impossible in the past are possible now.
"We think of it as donating our bodies to science. If it works then we have helped science and advanced life.”
Cryonics preserves the human body at low temperature after death in the hope it can be revived in the future.
After the body is cooled, it is transported to the company headquarters in Michigan and the person is later transferred to a special storage container where they are kept with the hope they can be woken up in the future.
“Essentially, we are buying time until technology catches up and is able to fully repair and restore the human body,” added Mr Kowalski, from Wisconsin.
“We have decided to take action in the present for the chance at a renewed life in the future.”
Mr Kowalski, who is now on the board of the member-owned, non-profit company – which hit the headlines last year when a 14-year-old Brit schoolgirl won the right to be frozen – said the process costs around $36,000.
He said they currently have 160 people frozen, around 100 pets and 1000 tissue samples, and 2000 people from across the world who have signed up to be frozen when they die.
Mr Kowalski said those who take part have little to lose and virtually everything to gain.
“Most people use their life insurance, we think of it as an ambulance ride to the hospital of the future," he said.
"I believe that hospital will exist.
“There are hundreds of companies that are already doing research that may help with that – stem cell research, cloning, computer chips.”
He said the company had not yet faced any “real legal obstacles”, adding: “As long as we make sure we operate ethically and morally which we do.
“It is donating your body to science. We always obey the law of the land we are in. People do say they may not like it – but normally they don’t full understand it.
“I understand that it isn’t for everyone. But people may have said organ transplants were playing god. Now that is accepted and seen as a good thing.”
