# Ethical thought experiment - reanimating a frozen person **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 11, 2020, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564 "2020-05-11T02:08:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/21 "2020-05-12T16:56:23Z")
> [@pool](#): > > “Sometimes dead is better.” But of course, “dead” is always still an option. If Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer decides that this new life is intolerable, they have the option to end it. But frozen is no choice at all. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/22 "2020-05-12T17:08:09Z")
If they were revived after, say 50 years, would the IRS be on them immediately for back taxes? ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/23 "2020-05-12T20:49:50Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > This alien petting zoo stuff sounds more far-fetched and over the top, not to mention mad-scientific and disturbingly imperialistic, than the original hypothetical. > > In real life (this is supposed to be the “near future”?) you can get things like support, benefits, loans, national insurance, education, training for work, etc. Yeah, I didn’t mean it to sound that way. More like "no attempt to normalize status and make the defrostee ‘just a citizen like everyone else’ ", rather the defrostee continues to have unique national/diplomatic status, and presumably continues to aid in research/whatever, while living as comfortable a life as possible under the circumstances. Sort of viewing them as a diplomat from the past. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/24 "2020-05-12T21:06:03Z")
I recently saw the iceman known as Ötzi in his refrigerator, over in Bolzano, Italy. That guy has been frozen for more than 5000 years. If he (or another similar individual) were unfrozen an brought back to life, everyone he knew would be dead, and even the language he spoke would be lost to time. He seems to have been a hardy, skilled individual, but none of his skills are likely to be useful in today’s economy (except for entertainment value). Who needs a chalcolithic age arrow-maker these days? If he were brought back to full health he should be able to survive and thrive, have children, learn a modern language and even use a smartphone. But it seems very likely that he would be very disoriented for a very long time, quite possibly permanently so. The trauma might be so great that his sanity could be compromised and his valuable memories distorted or lost. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2020, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/25 "2020-05-12T23:56:22Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > If they were revived after, say 50 years, would the IRS be on them immediately for back taxes? I don’t see why they would. Their last year of income taxes after being declared dead should have been filed by their family on behalf of the deceased, so any outstanding taxes owed would have been paid. And their income in the years prior to being revived is clearly going to be zero, so no taxes would be owed. I’m not sure how deductions work in the US, but in Canada, we have several standard “refundable deductions”, so that people who earn very little usually get back more than they paid in taxes. Were the Canadian Revenue Agency to try to assert that they need to file tax returns for the years they were frozen, it would be a nearly trivial matter to show that the government actually owes them many thousands of dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2020, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/26 "2020-05-13T01:08:45Z")
If N is high enough, they won’t be able to speak the modern language or know how to use modern technology. I’d still revive them, unless there’s a whole lot of them. (If only because I’d be happy to be in that situation.) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/27 "2020-05-20T19:55:27Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I’m just a caveman…” Reminds me of the trial in _Idiocracy_. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/28 "2020-05-20T20:05:11Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > If you feel you must revive _him_, do NOT add bionic body parts. It won’t go well. What else am I supposed to use as fodder for my army of enhanced cybernetic supersoldiers? None of my friends will volunteer and when I tried recruiting some Malaysian children the State Department denied the visas on the basis of some kind of “human trafficking” regulations. I guess I’m just going to have to use reanimated roadkill raccoons. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/29 "2020-05-20T20:11:15Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I’m just a caveman…” Exactly the first thing I thought of. > [@Max\_S](#): > > Reminds me of the trial in _Idiocracy_. [For anyone who didn’t get the reference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AzAFqrxfeY) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/30 "2020-05-20T20:25:11Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Should they be revived? What would their legal status be post revival? What set of ethics, and/or laws, would cover this process? If N is sufficient as to imply a language or culture barrier, or other culture shock, I probably would leave them be absent direct relatives asking for the revival. As far as laws and ethics go, I don’t think a previously “dead” patient should be held responsible for the costs of revival if such technology was unknown at the time of freezing, unless they gave some sort of consent. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/31 "2020-05-21T01:32:56Z")
This is exactly the premise of one of my favorite films, [Iceman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceman_(1984_film)). I thought it hit most of the right notes. The ancient man is revived in the spirit of discovery and communion, and genuine efforts are made to make him feel comfortable and meet his needs, but it’s also recognized that the situation is inherently very difficult, and there are no easy right answers. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/32 "2020-05-23T13:33:45Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > If they were revived after, say 50 years, would the IRS be on them immediately for back taxes? You bet. And the banks would claim fees for the old accounts and some lawyer or talk radio dude would drag him/her to court for fake dying claiming it was part of a world wide conspiracy. (S)he would receive offers from Dancing With The Stars, Love Island or similar, depending on her/his looks. But if (s)he could claim compound interests for a bank deposit for the last 10,000 years (s)he could become a very attractive partner. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/33 "2020-05-23T14:20:38Z")
Re: interest on bank accounts. You can be sure that when corpsicles become feasible the banks will get laws passed declaring that bank accounts of Peoplepops are automatically frozen. ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/34 "2020-05-23T15:04:55Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Re: interest on bank accounts. > You can be sure that when corpsicles become feasible the banks will get laws passed declaring that bank accounts of Peoplepops are automatically frozen. Would such old companies even exist anymore? > [@](#): > > (株式会社金剛組, Kabushiki Gaisha Kongō Gumi) is a Japanese construction company which was the world’s oldest continuously ongoing independent company, operating for over 1,400 years. From Wikipedia. I imagine companies can maintain records for longer, but companies usually don’t need to maintain records going back more than ten years, except for reasons of pride. If someone has been dead for 500 years, finding their account info would recall digging through old tape drive records, or bubble drives, or old DVDs, or whatever. Would they even last that long? Even if we’re still using Microsoft Excel centuries in the future, would we still have DVD drives or USB ports? ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/35 "2020-05-23T16:42:56Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > If they were revived after, say 50 years, would the IRS be on them immediately for back taxes? Based on what income? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564/36 "2020-05-23T18:45:01Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > Based on what income? Interest on the bank accounts he once had. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethical-thought-experiment-reanimating-a-frozen-person/853564.md?page=1)