U.S. Cryonics Targets Rich People in China

Arizona's Alcor Life Continuing Fund said that they have discussed establishing a team in China. A Cryonics Institute in Michigan said they also conducted similar discussions on doing business in China.

Observers say that the rich in China may be interested because they fear a ban on burials in many places.

The traditional Chinese culture requires that the body must be preserved in order to be reincarnation. Huang Wei, a professor at the Sichuan University’s School of History and Culture, said: “The Chinese have always been interested in the preservation of bodies and immortality. The cryonics method is a new choice from the West and will certainly attract those who can afford it.”

The cryogenic method consists of placing the body in an aluminum container and then placing it in cryogenic liquid nitrogen.

The whole-body freezing project costs at least $200,000, and people outside the United States, including China, also pay an additional fee.

Marge Klima, manager of Alco Life Extension Fund, said that their doors are open to more Chinese.

A Cantonese businessman said he was considering buying this service for himself and his family. He said that his greatest motive is not to hope that the future technology can make him back to life, but the government’s policy of forced cremation.

For the Guangdong businessman, the cost of the Cryonics is not a problem, but he is concerned that the Chinese customs may prohibit the export of the remains to the country.

Xu Shaozhou, an associate professor at the Department of Sociology at Wuhan University who studies the Chinese funeral tradition, said that if the government does not relax the forced cremation policy, more Chinese rich people will consider the Cryonics Act.

However, one scientist warned not to believe in cryonics. Zheng Congyi, a professor of microbiology at Wuhan University, said that no humans or animals have used this process to bring back to life.