Could be ideal for low budget brain preservation, as pointed out before on various other forums. Unfortunately (amazingly), most cryonicists seem to be rather closed-minded, or at least indifferent in the extreme, about this and other low budget emergency procedures. Hopefully plastination can become part of the Norwegian setup, so that at least Europeans will be able to choose from a broad(er) range of "services" (right now it's more or less "CI or nothing", unless you'd happen to be relatively rich).

Main advantages:

1) Specimens are strong and easy to handle compared to frozen ones.
2) Can be stored for long periods of time at room temperature with little or no decay (great backup in case there's a power failure/problem with the LN2 supply, or even if the cryo org goes out of business).
3) Costs almost certainly (a lot) less than a regular suspension up front, and does not necessarily require cryogenic storage, LN2 or electric --> much less or even no storage costs (if kept at RT).
4) Lower cost would give a (much) larger segment of the population a shot at immortality, thereby spreading the immortality meme and attracting more people to regular cryonics as well (and probably improving society in the process).
5) It would be the morally/ethically sound thing to do;
always preserve as much as possible, by whatever means that are at your disposal (comparable to the medical guideline of "do no harm").

From: http://www.acmeimage.com/plastination.html

PLASTINATION: A technique of tissue preservation invented by Dr. Gunther von Hagens in Heidelberg, Germany in 1978. In this process, water and lipids in biological tissues are replaced by curable polymers which are then hardened. The results are a dry, odorless and preserved specimen. The type polymer used will determine both optical and mechanical properties of the impregnated specimen.

The process requires four main steps:

•Fixation - Involves the specimen to be fixed in a 10% formaldehyde solution, this stabilizes the tissue and prevents autolysis. Specimens can also be dissected and blood vessels injected with a colored medium to highlight desired structures.

•Dehydration - Biological specimens have a high water content which must be removed for plastination. This is achieved by a process known as Freeze Substitution where the specimens are placed into a cold -25°C solvent such as acetone. Then, over a period of 4-5 weeks the tissue water is slowly replaced by the acetone.

•Forced Impregnation - The dehydrated specimens are submerged into the liquid polymer and placed under vacuum, hence the term Forced Impregnation. The vacuum draws out the acetone from the specimen, leaving the polymer in its place.

•Hardening - Next, the polymer filled specimen is placed into a sealed chamber where it comes into contact with a curing gas. This gas fully hardens the polymer making the specimen dry to touch in about 48 hours. Curing is complete after several months and the specimen may be stored at room temperature indefinitely.

For more info about plastination, see:

http://www.univie.ac.at/anatomie2/about.html

http://www.univie.ac.at/anatomie2/plastinationhistory.html

http://www.kfunigraz.ac.at/anawww/plast/index.htm

http://www.kfunigraz.ac.at/anawww/plast/s10.html

http://www.plastination.com

http://www.supersphere.com/Zinetropa/Article.html?ID=LostAtSea&NAME=plast

I agree with Mr. Otter that the plastination technique should be examined by everyone in the cryonics community. It's an excellent example of preservation of the fine details of organic structure and could very well lead to some creative thinking as we compare the two processes-- cryonics and plastination.

If there were a company offering plastination services and if the price to have this done in a timely manner as is now attempted by the cryonics companies were less than cryonics, and if I could not afford the cryonics option, then I would probably consider the plastination option as better than rotting and as offering some sort of possible hope of structural and therefore functional recovery of some part of my cognition.

In the same breath, I should also mention that I would consider diary writing, picture taking and other external memory aids to be important-- on a similar level-- in helping to rebuild my personality in the future. To this end, I'm constantly trying to figure out how to make diary writing more effective and efficient.

I like the plastination work a lot. I was aware of it, but I commend you on finding and posting the excellent links. On the matter of elitism and cryonics-- I'll have to think on that a bit more.

I'm glad to see such a rational response. If only more people saw it that way...Of course, things like diary writing, picture taking etc. should also be on every serious cryonaut's to-do list. One can never have too much data about oneself, one's relatives, friends, home, vacations and whatever else seems significant. That's why I've recently bought a digital camcorder -- if the tapes survive, they'll be a great source of information for whoever tries to put me back together again.

If it could be done cheaper than cryonics
it would be a great solution to those that can't afford full cryonic suspension.

For those who can afford cryonic suspension
some seem to be hesitant to use embalming
e.g. hesitant to damage the body further before the freezing, out of concern that it might be harder to be brought back.

Such a sentiment might make some hesitant to select plastination too.

As a result they might be out of luck if their cryonic suspension for some reason fails to take place or later is abandoned.

Plastination might find a market among those that have signed up for neuro suspension:

e.g. as a combination: freeze the brain or head
and plastinate the body!

Plastination might also find a market among people that already are in favour of embalming: E.g. religious people or anyone who just want to preserve a body in the best possible way, and who does not worry about restoring it.

Sincerely,

Trygve