Cryogénisation : 50 ans après, qu’est devenu le premier homme congelé dans l’espoir de renaître ?
Who was behind James Bedford?
James Hiram Bedford was not just a desperate patient. A professor of psychology at the University of California, he was also an adventurer at heart, having crisscrossed Africa, the Amazon, Europe and North America. But in 1967, a fatal diagnosis of kidney cancer turned his life upside down. Faced with the impotence of the medicine of his time, he turned to an idea that was considered revolutionary at the time: cryonics.
Cryogénisation : 50 ans après, qu’est devenu le premier homme congelé dans l’espoir de renaître ?
The challenge of immortality through the cold
This futuristic vision was popularized by Dr. Robert Ettinger in his book "The Prospect of Immortality". Seduced by this promise, Bedford invested $100,000 to have his body cryogenically frozen after his death. On January 12, 1967, at the age of 73, he died. His body is immediately prepared: his blood is replaced by dimethyl sulfoxide, an agent supposed to protect his organs, and then it is placed in a tank of liquid nitrogen at -196 °C. It is there that he still rests today.
