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Just when the world is embracing the reality of cremation, they are hit by the new science of cryogenically freezing the body of the deceased. It's alarming how many people have already lined up their names for this process. Even though it is not common, there is a good number of famous people cryogenically frozen today. But do you know these celebrities who have been cryogenically frozen?
Many people today preserve their bodies with the hope of being brought back to life by advanced technologies in the future. A cryogenically frozen body is cooled on ice to 130°C. The body is then placed in a container which is then dipped into a huge metal tank. The metal tank is filled with liquid nitrogen which keeps the temperature at 196°C.
As of 2023, over 500 bodies and heads have been cryopreserved. At this rate, it is evident that many people are gradually embracing this idea more than before. Below is a list of famous people cryogenically frozen.
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James Hiram was an American psychology professor at the University of California. Apart from his profession, James has written several books on occupational counselling.
When was the first person cryogenically frozen? James was the first person to be cryogenically frozen. His body was preserved at Alcor Life Extension Foundation after he died of kidney cancer in 1967. He left behind $100,000 for cryonics research in his will.
However, because his family was not in agreement with his will of being cryopreserved, the money was spent in court trying to defend his will. Luckily, James had an offer from Ev Cooper's Life Extension Society (LES) to preserve his body for free.
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Williams was a renowned professional baseball player from America. From 1939 until 1960, he spent his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the Boston Red Sox, predominantly as a left fielder. He is recognized as one of baseball's all-time great hitters.
He suffered from cardiomyopathy and later on died of cardiac arrest on 5 July 2002, at the age of 83. It was Williams's will for his body to be cremated and his ashes scattered in the Florida Keys. However, his children John-Henry and Claudia chose to have his remains frozen cryonically.
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Herold Thomas Finney II also known as Hall Finney, was an American software developer. He is well known for developing computer games such as Adventures of Tron, Armor Ambush, Astrosmash and Space Attack. He was also a cypherpunk who actively supported cryptography.
Aside from that, Thomas was also an early bitcoin contributor. He received the first bitcoin transaction from bitcoin's creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Finney passed away in Phoenix, Arizona, on 28 August 2014, from ALS complications. His body was cryopreserved at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation.
Clair was a well-known American actor, television producer and film writer. He was a proponent of cryonics and, from the 1960s until his passing, belonged to the Cryonics Society of California.
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Clair is best known for his appearance in television series such as Carol Burnett & Company, The Carol Burnett Show, Soap and It's a Living. He also made financial contributions to organizations like Trans Time. He died on 12 December 1988 from AIDS-related complications and was cryopreserved at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation.
Dora Kent is one of the famous cryogenically frozen celebrities in the United States. In December 1987, she succumbed to Alzheimer's disease and pneumonia and was brought by her son, Saul Kent, to the Alcor facility in Riverside, California. Saul was a board member of Alcor.
Alcor workers removed her head and stored it in a nitrogen-cooled Dewar flask. The American dressmaker was Alcor's eighth patient and the oldest female at that time to ever be cryopreserved. Dora was the subject of a 1988 legal controversy about whether she had been killed to facilitate her cryonic suspension.
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Fereidoun M. Esfandiary also known as FM 2030 was an Iranian-American multitalented personality that wore several hats. He was a popular writer known for his book Transhuman which gave him the name 'Transhumanist'. Apart from writing, FM-2030 was a consultant, philosopher and Olympic athlete.
FM-2030 died on 8 July 2000, from pancreatic cancer at a friend’s apartment in Manhattan. His death was not planned for by the Alcor team, therefore, there was no Alcor team member present at his death. Unlike other cryonics, his body was the first one to be vitrified instead of being frozen as previous cryonics patients had been.
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John Henry Williams was the son of the famous baseball player Ted Williams. He is known for signing a private pact with her sister for his father to be cryogenically frozen. In 2003, it was reported that John Henry had been diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukaemia. As a result, he started chemotherapy.
He underwent a bone marrow transplant with a donation from his sister Claudia. Unfortunately, John succumbed to his illness on 6 March 2004, at the UCLA Medical Center at the age of 35. His body was preserved at Alcor Life Extension Foundation as per his will.
Coles was a famous American biogerontologist who specialized in the study of ageing and supercentenarians. He was also known as the executive director of the Gerontology Research Group. As a researcher, he worked with schools such as the David Geffen School of Medicine and David Geffen School of Medicine.
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The researcher was born on 19 January 1941 in New York City, United States and he died of pancreatic cancer on 3 December 2014, in Scottsdale, Arizona. Alcor Life Extension Foundation used cryonics to save his brain as their patient 131.
Peter Daniel Eckersley was an Australian activist and computer security researcher. He was very outspoken on computer-related topics, including the ethics of AI, net privacy and net neutrality. He worked on projects like Privacy Badger, Certbot, HTTPS Everywhere and SSL Observatory.
Eckersley passed away on 2 September 2022, in San Francisco from cancer treatment-related complications. Earlier before his death, he wrote to his close friend of his will. He wanted his brain to be cryogenically frozen a will that was granted by the cryonics organization.
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Robert Chester Wilson Ettinger is one of the famous people who arranged for cryonics. He was an American academic known for his book The Prospect of Immortality. Robert was nicknamed "the father of cryonics" because of his love for cryonics.
He is also the founder of the Cryonics Institute, an institute responsible for CI freezing of dead people. Ettinger died on 23 July 2011. His body was cryopreserved, at the cryonics institute.
Yes, there are many people who have arranged for cryonics upon their death. Some of them include philosopher David Pearce, the PayPal founder Luke Nosek, Nick Bostrom and Anders Sandberg also known for being Oxford transhumanists. Famous actors Seth MacFarlane and Ralph Merkle have equally arranged for cryonics upon their death.
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More than five decades after the first cryopreservation, there are now over 500 cryogenically frozen people around the world. The Cryonics Institute, for example, holds more than 206 bodies while Alcor has over 182 bodies. KrioRus has more than 80 bodies. Additionally, there are a handful of others held by smaller operations.
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Human cryopreservation has increased in popularity over the years. However, it is not only secluded for the famous celebrities, but for everyone as long as you can afford it. As much as it is against the norms, people are slowly warming up to it, especially celebrities. It is obvious that soon, the list of famous people cryogenically frozen will be even longer.
Tuko.co.ke also shared an article about 10 prominent Kenyans who chose cremation over burial. Kenya is slowly embracing cremation as a way of disposing of human remains. The former Safaricom boss, Robert (Bob) William Collymore tops the list of celebrities whose bodies were cremated in Kenya.
Other celebrities on this list include the renowned Kenyan environmentalist and activist Wangari Mathai and the famous politician Kenneth Matiba. Even though Kenyans are now cremating their loved one's remains, burial remains the norm and is preferred by most Christians in Kenya.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
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