Metro and State | Ettinger, father of cryonics movement, dies; placed in deep freeze | The Detroit News
One of the founders of a movement to store people's bodies at very low temperature after death in hopes that future technology would allow for revival and curing of aging and disease has died of respiratory failure. He was 92.
Robert Ettinger — the Clinton Township man widely regarded as the father of the cryonics movement — has become the 106th patient at the organization he founded, the Cryonics Institute, housed in a nondescript industrial park off Interstate 94 in Clinton Township.
The five-day process — which involved packing Ettinger's body on ice, profusing with chemicals to limit freezer damage and slowly cooling to the temperature of liquid nitrogen — began within minutes of his death on Saturday afternoon to assure the least amount of damage. He is expected to be ready to be submerged upside down in a tank, known as a cryostat, filled with liquid nitrogen by Thursday, according to his son, David Ettinger.
"He really has been viewed as the inspirational leader of the cryonics movement, and thousands of people around the world have looked up to him and will be upset that's gone but hopeful that he will be back," said Ettinger, who was with his father when he died over the weekend.
Robert Ettinger was 14 years old when he read a science fiction story that spawned the idea that today is known as cryonics.
The story, "The Jameson Satellite," relayed how a professor sent a corpse into the earth's orbit for indefinite preservation. Millions of years later, aliens found the body, took the brain out and put it in a mechanical body. Ettinger thought the author missed the point of his own story.
"Why wait for aliens?" Ettinger told The Detroit News in 2009. "Why not do it ourselves?"
Ettinger served in World War II, where he was injured in Germany. He spent months in the hospital and discovered science was accelerating the concept of cryonics. He wrote to scores of people in Who's Who of America, trying to persuade them to get behind the concept and do something about it.
When he got no response, he self-published a book in 1962 called "The Prospect of Immortality." Two years later, Doubleday published the book, which was eventually translated into several languages, including French, German, Dutch and Italian.
"I thought the premise was so logical," said Ettinger, who taught physics and math at Wayne State University and Highland Park Community College.
Ettinger founded the Cryonics Institute in 1976, first located in Detroit. He also founded the Immortalist Society, an organization devoted to education and research relating to cryonics and life extension.
He eventually relocated the institute to Clinton Township.
For years, membership was in the single digits, but it has exploded 500 percent since 2000 to more than 900 people from around the globe. All want either to preserve themselves, DNA or pets. The facility has preserved more than 64 animals, mostly dogs and cats, but a few birds and a hamster.
Besides his son, Ettinger leaves behind a daughter, Shelley Ettinger, who is not a member of the Cryonics Institute.
At the institute, Ettinger joins his mother, Rhea Ettinger, who was the first cryopreserved corpse at the institute, in 1977. He also joins his first and second wives, Elaine and Mae Ettinger, who were the institute's No. 2 and 34 patients, respectively.
Ettinger didn't want a memorial service because he believed he may come back again. But his son said there was discussion about having one during the annual meeting of the Cryonics Institute in September.
Memorials may be made to the institute or the Immortalist Society Research Fund.
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I certainly have my doubts on the whole process in regards to ever being able to be brought back after such a process, maybe cloning you from the DNA, sure, but I doubt they'd be brought back with their memories intact.
But since they're dead, what is there to lose?
One of the founders of a movement to store people's bodies at very low temperature after death in hopes that future technology would allow for revival and curing of aging and disease has died of respiratory failure. He was 92.
Robert Ettinger — the Clinton Township man widely regarded as the father of the cryonics movement — has become the 106th patient at the organization he founded, the Cryonics Institute, housed in a nondescript industrial park off Interstate 94 in Clinton Township.
The five-day process — which involved packing Ettinger's body on ice, profusing with chemicals to limit freezer damage and slowly cooling to the temperature of liquid nitrogen — began within minutes of his death on Saturday afternoon to assure the least amount of damage. He is expected to be ready to be submerged upside down in a tank, known as a cryostat, filled with liquid nitrogen by Thursday, according to his son, David Ettinger.
"He really has been viewed as the inspirational leader of the cryonics movement, and thousands of people around the world have looked up to him and will be upset that's gone but hopeful that he will be back," said Ettinger, who was with his father when he died over the weekend.
Robert Ettinger was 14 years old when he read a science fiction story that spawned the idea that today is known as cryonics.
The story, "The Jameson Satellite," relayed how a professor sent a corpse into the earth's orbit for indefinite preservation. Millions of years later, aliens found the body, took the brain out and put it in a mechanical body. Ettinger thought the author missed the point of his own story.
"Why wait for aliens?" Ettinger told The Detroit News in 2009. "Why not do it ourselves?"
Ettinger served in World War II, where he was injured in Germany. He spent months in the hospital and discovered science was accelerating the concept of cryonics. He wrote to scores of people in Who's Who of America, trying to persuade them to get behind the concept and do something about it.
When he got no response, he self-published a book in 1962 called "The Prospect of Immortality." Two years later, Doubleday published the book, which was eventually translated into several languages, including French, German, Dutch and Italian.
"I thought the premise was so logical," said Ettinger, who taught physics and math at Wayne State University and Highland Park Community College.
Ettinger founded the Cryonics Institute in 1976, first located in Detroit. He also founded the Immortalist Society, an organization devoted to education and research relating to cryonics and life extension.
He eventually relocated the institute to Clinton Township.
For years, membership was in the single digits, but it has exploded 500 percent since 2000 to more than 900 people from around the globe. All want either to preserve themselves, DNA or pets. The facility has preserved more than 64 animals, mostly dogs and cats, but a few birds and a hamster.
Besides his son, Ettinger leaves behind a daughter, Shelley Ettinger, who is not a member of the Cryonics Institute.
At the institute, Ettinger joins his mother, Rhea Ettinger, who was the first cryopreserved corpse at the institute, in 1977. He also joins his first and second wives, Elaine and Mae Ettinger, who were the institute's No. 2 and 34 patients, respectively.
Ettinger didn't want a memorial service because he believed he may come back again. But his son said there was discussion about having one during the annual meeting of the Cryonics Institute in September.
Memorials may be made to the institute or the Immortalist Society Research Fund.
--------------------------------
I certainly have my doubts on the whole process in regards to ever being able to be brought back after such a process, maybe cloning you from the DNA, sure, but I doubt they'd be brought back with their memories intact.
But since they're dead, what is there to lose?