Q&A: Freezing Bodies
Freezing Bodies
Question
In the United States there is a phenomenon (apparently still a small one) of freezing bodies. Some freeze the entire body, and some freeze only the brain. The goal is to preserve the body from decay, so that if one day medicine will be able to cure him (for example, to print him a heart in place of the one that collapsed, or in the case of someone who froze only the brain — to print a whole body), the person will come back to life.
Several questions —
A. Does Jewish law permit this? Seemingly, Jewish law says that one who dies is buried. But here it seems that the person chooses not to regard himself as dead (and perhaps the very knowledge that one day such a technological possibility may exist changes the concept of death in the eyes of the individual and of humanity), so it may be that this law does not apply to him. Especially since the halakhic criterion for death is learned from the laws of whom one clears away a collapsed heap for — which is essentially equivalent to whether it is possible to bring him back to life.
B. If we assume that freezing bodies changes the person's status and he is not considered dead — would that have implications for the laws of inheritance (assuming he died without deciding what should be done with his property), and for his widow(?)
C. It is known that a sleeping person counts toward a minyan. The question is whether such a person would also count (and it seems that this depends on whether the reason a sleeping person counts is "the Divine Presence rests wherever there are ten" or "anyone fit for mixing," in the sense that he can wake up and answer — which is not the case here)
Answer
I assume that the obligation of burial would not override the possibility of returning to life, and therefore in my opinion there would be no prohibition here. Just as one takes an organ from a dead person in order to save another living person, except that here it is in the future.
But that does not mean we have changed his definition from dead to alive. At present he is completely dead for every purpose, such as inheritance and a minyan.
Discussion on Answer
The question is even more severe.
If it is possible to freeze a terminally ill patient who is still alive. They already do this in several countries, and it is an industry that generates a lot of money.
In practice they kill him now in case a cure is found, and then they will thaw him, give the treatment, and back to everyday life.
He'll be able to send clutch cashes to Rabbi Michi.
Isn't that a prohibition of murder?
Why would freezing be a prohibition of murder? Is anesthesia murder?
Under anesthesia he is alive.
Here he is dead.
They only hope that in the future they will be able to revive him, or that they will find medicines or new technologies.
A follow-up question —
A. If he is dead (and only the commandment of burial is deferred), is it permitted to take his organs without his consent, say with the consent of his heirs, in order to heal other sick people?
(In parentheses I would say that when issues like this are on the table, perhaps all kinds of discussions among halakhic decisors about what will happen at the resurrection of the dead will suddenly acquire practical significance even before it happens.)
G,
Have you decided to drive me crazy? You asked about freezing a living person.
The Cryonic Man,
No, because he himself does not agree. In the case of any dead person, one may not take his organs if he did not consent.
If a way is ever found to bring him back to life, then perhaps before they revive him his status changes to that of a sleeping person. But we are not there.