Italian tour guide pays 200,000 euros to have his body frozen at -196 degrees

A bet on biostasis

Giuseppe Fedele, a 54-year-old tour guide from Gaeta in Italy, has enrolled in a program that would keep his entire body in liquid nitrogen after death. The technique is called biostasis: the body is cooled to very low temperatures to limit the breakdown of tissues, in the hope that future medicine can bring him back to life. Fedele says he does not believe in Buddha, Jesus or reincarnation into a cow, and has chosen what he calls a "techno-scientific religion" instead. Asked why he would take the gamble, he told Corriere della Sera:

“Nobody can really know whether we will come back to life. When in doubt, why not try?”

Fedele acknowledges that there is no certainty the procedure will work.

How the procedure would work

Tomorrow.bio, a company founded in Berlin, opened a facility in Switzerland in 2020, and it is the provider Fedele has chosen. After legal death is declared, a specially equipped ambulance is meant to reach the body and begin cooling it with ice. The blood is replaced with a cryoprotectant, which is designed to stop ice crystals from forming in the tissues. The body is then taken to Rafz in the canton of Zurich, where it would be kept in containers of liquid nitrogen at -196 degrees Celsius. Open describes the ambulance as a kind of mobile operating theatre, and says the procedure ends with the body stored in Switzerland.

Cost and funding

Fedele sets aside 50 euros a month as the program's membership fee and another 50 euros for a life insurance policy, which is meant to pay for the procedure after his death. The full-body option costs about 200,000 euros, while the company also offers a brain-only option for 75,000 euros, which Fedele has rejected because he wants his whole body preserved. Open reports that 82 Italians have signed up, the third-largest national group after Americans and Germans, and that Fedele's body would be stored alongside about 700 others in four countries.

Whole body200,000

Brain only75,000

Whole body

200000 EUR

Brain only

75000 EUR

Data from the article text

Around his neck he wears a tag stating that he is a body donor for medical purposes and asking that no autopsy be performed, along with a contact number to start the procedure.

What he hopes for on revival

Fedele has asked, if it becomes possible, to be revived in a younger body. He has said he would also be open to interstellar travel, given how much is being said about colonising Mars. Open quotes him saying that by then people may already be androids, which he suggests would be a reason to want a younger body. He has also said that he does not want to lose part of his personality or the information he holds in order to save money, which is why he rejected the brain-only option.

Limits and the company's view

Neither the science nor the company can promise a result. The website of the Swiss centre states that bringing a person back to life after cryopreservation is not currently possible, even though medical research is advancing. Emil Kendziorra, the company's CEO and founder and a German doctor with a background in cancer research, says no guarantees can be offered until someone has been revived. He also puts the chance of revival after cremation at 0 percent, and describes the service as a bridge across time for people who die of illnesses such as cancer.