Date: 26 March 2026
Time: 09:00-12:00
International half-day Conference at the Institute for Futures Studies
Cryonics is an emerging method of preserving humans at extremely low temperatures after death.
Cryonics involves cooling a person, after death has been declared according to established medical criteria, to extremely low temperatures for long-term preservation. The purpose is that, if medical technology advances in the future, functions that are currently irreversible might be restored.
At present, there is no scientific evidence that this is possible.
Cryonic preservation is already offered by companies in Europe, including Germany and Switzerland. In North America, established organisations such as Alcor Life Extension Foundation accept members from multiple countries.
One question therefore often arises: is cryonics legal in Sweden, and how would regulation and oversight apply if such services were offered here?
Cryonics is therefore not merely a hypothetical issue. It already raises questions for medicine, law, insurance and public institutions.
What happens if a patient is declared dead in a Swedish hospital and the family requests that the body be transported to a cryonics company abroad?
Such a situation raises questions about the legal definition of death, responsibility, regulatory oversight, consumer protection and insurance law.
The conference examines cryonics as a policy problem emerging at the intersection of medicine, ethics, law and institutional governance.
Gustaf Arrhenius
Professor of Practical Philosophy and Director, Institute for Futures Studies
Anders Sandberg, PhD
Researcher focusing on future technologies, existential risk and long-term societal challenges
Patrick Linden
Senior Lecturer, Geneva College of Longevity Science
James Arrowood
Chief Executive Officer, Alcor Life Extension Foundation
Göran Hermerén
Professor Emeritus of Medical Ethics, Lund University
Ole Martin Moen
Professor of Philosophy, OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University
Francesca Minerva
Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Milan “La Statale” (participating digitally)
João Pedro Magalhães
Professor of Molecular Biogerontology, University of Birmingham (participating digitally)
Opening – Gustaf Arrhenius
The Institute for Futures Studies’ perspective and framing of the conference.
Keynote – Anders Sandberg
Cryonics as a systemic issue within medicine, technology and institutions.
Conversation I – James Arrowood and Göran Hermerén
Establishment of cryonics – ethics, responsibility, marketing and consumer protection.
Audience questions
Break
Conversation II – Francesca Minerva (digital) and Ole Martin Moen
Personhood, experimental treatment and ethical boundaries.
Conversation III – Anders Sandberg and João Pedro Magalhães (digital)
Longevity and systemic implications.
Joint discussion – Three policy challenges
Closing synthesis – Patrick Linden
The boundary of death in a society where cryonics is taken seriously as a social phenomenon.
Audience dialogue and discussion
Cryonics is a form of post-mortem preservation in which the body or brain is cooled to approximately –196 °C.
Unlike traditional burial or cremation, cryonic preservation is undertaken with the explicit intention of potential future medical intervention.
Even if revival never becomes feasible, cryonics raises significant legal and regulatory questions within a Swedish and European legal context.
How does cryonics relate to established criteria for determining death?
How might the boundary between healthcare, research and experimental treatment be affected?
How would a contract for cryonic preservation be assessed under civil law?
How might funeral law, health law and consumer protection legislation apply?
Which supervisory authority would be responsible?
Can life insurance be used to finance cryonics in Sweden?
How are risk assessment and legal effects at death influenced?
What regulatory uncertainties arise?
Cryonics raises central institutional questions:
There is no specific regulation governing cryonics. The key question is how existing Swedish legislation would apply.
There is currently no scientific evidence that a human being can be revived after cryonic preservation.
In some countries, life insurance is used as a funding mechanism. How this would be assessed under Swedish insurance law remains uncertain.
