Q&A: The Jewish Position on the Question of Freezing / Suspending Life
The Jewish Position on the Question of Freezing / Suspending Life
Question
There are companies that offer a freezing process after a person has been legally declared dead, in the hope that future technologies may be able to revive and heal him. There is also research into the possibility of suspending life for a period, similar to the hibernation of other mammals, in order to make travel to other stars easier and to give hope to terminally ill patients. The question is whether, from the standpoint of Jewish law and Jewish outlook, this issue constitutes a problem and a loss of life in a case of possible life-saving.
Answer
I didn’t understand the question. Do you mean freezing while still alive?
Discussion on Answer
I think there is no prohibition against this, because in simple terms freezing is not killing but more like very long-term sleep. If this were a healthy person, there would be room for hesitation, since in the frozen state he cannot do anything and at least de facto it is like death. But in the case of a terminally ill patient whose goal is to try to gain life, just as he was permitted to undergo a dangerous operation in order to have a chance of saving his life, reason suggests that he would likewise be permitted to freeze himself for that purpose.
This is about a terminally ill patient who asks to be frozen while still alive, in the hope that in the future they will succeed in finding a treatment for his illness, and then he will be thawed and treated—for example, a brain cancer patient who wants them to freeze him before his brain is destroyed.
At the moment this is still a theoretical question, but research is being carried out on the subject. (https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Hibernate_for_a_trip_to_Mars_the_bear_way)