Ima Let You Finish, But Just Let Me Suspend My Animation

You know I'm a little creeped out by the idea of cryogenics, right? (Although, it makes for great science fiction stories!) I just don't like the idea of stopping time, even if it's just within my own body. Seems like there might be some awful payback for doing that. Like, you might be mentally compromised or just not emotionally equipped to handle the change.

I was reading (here)that the FDA has given the go-ahead for human trials for suspended animation. (Okay, they actually gave the go-ahead a couple of years ago, but it looks like this might actually go ahead now.) This is similar to how a patient is put in an artificial coma for doctors to work on.

When I read this, my first thought was "Space travel." Right? This is how humans will make the long journey through space to reach other planets. Suspended animation, a science fiction staple, is really the only viable choice for such travel. (Since we have yet to achieve FTL engine technology and lack the resources to build a "space ark.")

But then, I started thinking about the actual process. Human patients, who were on the verge of death, would have all of their bodily fluids replaced with cold saline and their body temperature would drop really low. There would be no brain activity, no heartbeat, no electrical activity that would indicate life.

The person would be dead, in other words. Hm. So basically, we're not so much suspending animation as we are re-animating a corpse. Well that's a cat of a different color, isn't it? Aren't we really talking about some kind of Flatliners scenario? Maybe we shouldn't do that?

Hm. Maybe this is how the Zombiepocalypse starts?