What does hylomorphism have to say about cryogenics? 


To explain what I'm asking, we now already have frozen dead human beings in cryogenic chambers who are frozen for the sake of preservation so that their bodies could be revived in the future by more advanced science. 

So considering the frozen human bodies are in fact dead, if we were to find out a way to bring these dead bodies back to life such that they they retain their rationality, how would we interpret this from a Catholic Thomist perspective?

Would God create a new rational soul to enform the revived dead body and is it even possible for a new rational form to embody matter that a previous form embodied? If so, how would this square with the fact the new soul is now in a body with memories that make it think it was the same person as it was before revival, even though the substantial form that existed back then is now gone? And most importantly, how would this square with the doctrine of the Resurrection of the dead - Would the same body be occupied by 2 rational souls then?

And if God doesn't create a new rational soul, but brings the old soul back, how would this be accomplished? Is the soul somehow kept in a suspended state such that even though it should is seperated from the body, it can still go back to it? If so, I sense someone could object that this seems a little ad hoc as an explanation, i.e. God could suspend all souls like that, which prompts the question of why that doesn't happen.

Last edited by aftermathemat (3/26/2018 4:44 pm)