I’m starting this blog with an apology. I frequently like to use links to other stories to illustrate a point or show where an idea originated from, but, sadly, this time that “read through” is from The Sun.
I’m warning you now as I don’t want anyone to click through who doesn’t want to give The Sun their time or clicks.
Moving on…
The story is about cryogenic freezing. Apparently, with costs reducing, the process is now going to be more accessible – in fact, it may soon be cheaper than a funeral.
The process being discussed in the article from The Sun is where only the head is frozen – this is what keeps costs down. However, with the advent of whole head transplants, the prospect of “awakening” a head, and being able to attach it to another body or some type of mechanical living system so it can live again, is very real.
A good idea?
This throws up huge ethical and moral issues, but my reason for writing is not to debate these – yet. But cryogenic freezing for pets does need discussion – not least because I have already been asked about it, and the story from The Sun made me think about that very incident.
Let me take you back to my student veterinary nurse days – so yes, not recent, but some 15 years ago. I worked between two branches of a group of vets and one was cat only.
When it’s 100% cat people, you get some funny situations. We often got telephone calls people felt we could help with, but as we weren’t an RCVS specialist centre or a referral practice, I think people got confused.
Many telephone calls started with “I hear you‘re a cat specialist” and we would have to explain the difference.
During my time there, I had some interesting telephone calls. One, for example, included a request to DNA test kittens as the owner felt she had been sold a sterile stud cat.
One problem – she didn’t have the kittens she wanted to test. Apparently, she was going to take the DNA surreptitiously, and was looking for some advice…
That’s interesting
Then there was the “Do you do cryogenic freezing?” telephone call. The answer was simple – we didn’t. But as the lady wasn’t a client of ours, I tried to find out more information to see if there was anything we could help with.
The actual situation? The cat involved was 18 years old, had advanced renal failure and, most importantly, had just been hit by a car and was dying in the middle of the road. The owner wanted to freeze her cat so once a way to reverse renal failure or get a transplant existed, she would have her cat ready.
I think a lot was in the press at the time about renal transplants in cats in the US, so maybe this had been the motivator – that this would happen in the UK soon, too, and her cat’s time was running out?
Apparently, the need for the cat to receive first aid wasn’t a priority – my offers of advice and attempts to find out where the cat was were rebuffed – and as we couldn’t provide cryonic suspension, there seemed to be, in her eyes, little point in her bringing the cat to us.
Never mind
I’d go as far as saying the lady was actually really annoyed we didn’t offer freezing, and seemed to think this was some sort of “failing” for a cat-only vet practice.
She was insistent I inform her of somewhere that could do it, so I did the bad thing I have blogged about before – I gave the RCVS and RVC as possible contacts, even though:
- they do different things
- I knew the RVC wasn’t offering cryogenic freezing
- I highly suspected the RCVS did not hold a list of vets offering this service
I did explain this to the lady, but was cut off from saying much more as suddenly, she declared the cat had died.
Now, I don’t know much about cryopreservation, but I know the process needs to begin at the point of death. I also knew there wasn’t likely to be a cryo flying squad available to swoop on this cat at precisely the right time.
Again, I tried to get the lady to take her cat to a vet practice to ensure it wasn’t suffering, but she seemed convinced she didn’t need to. Regardless, by this point, it was all over – for the owner, me and any attempt at cryonically preserving that poor cat.
So, what did I learn and still wonder now? Advances in technology are great, and almost guaranteed (as #VNInnovation winner, I need to say that), but will the rational application of these by owners to their pets be possible?
Only time will tell…
Leave a Reply