In hope of future revival, Mumbai family spent Rs 50 lakh keeping man’s body frozen since 2022 | Mumbai News
MUMBAI: Deeply disturbed by the death of an 80-year-old family member, his wife and two adult children preserved his body for four years, spending more than Rs 50 lakh and researching whether it could eventually be sent to a cryonics facility in the US, police said.The unusual arrangement came to light on Monday night after Kurar police received a tip-off and visited a polyclinic in Malad. The man’s body was found inside a freezer at the premises, where the family had kept it after their residential building went into redevelopment.The man died in 2022 after suffering from cancer, kidney failure and other age-related ailments. His family initially kept his body in a freezer at their Malad home. When redevelopment work began at the building, they moved it to the clinic, police said.According to police, the family told investigators that they had been deeply affected by his death and could not bring themselves to perform his last rites. His wife and two adult children, including a lawyer daughter, had researched cryonics online and contacted organisations in the US that offer long-term preservation of people after legal death.The family was also consulting lawyers in India to understand the legalities involved in preserving the body and was exploring whether it could be transported to a facility in the US. Police said the family had spent more than Rs 50 lakh on preserving the body over the past four years.
Hope of revival
The family’s research centred on the possibility of preserving the man’s body in the hope that advances in future science could one day make revival possible, police said.Private cryonics organisations in the US offer to preserve legally dead people at extremely low temperatures, typically around -196°C using liquid nitrogen. The process involves preparing the body for long-term storage after legal death and transporting it to a specialised facility.Such organisations describe their objective as extending the possibility of future revival by preserving the body until technologies that could potentially reverse the damage caused by death become available. However, cryonics remains experimental and there is currently no established method of reviving a person preserved in this manner.Preservation packages offered by US-based organisations can cost tens of thousands of dollars, with some facilities quoting one-time costs of more than $28,000 and others charging up to about $45,000, depending on the services and type of preservation.The family had been exploring these options while simultaneously seeking legal advice in India, police said.
Body found at clinic
The body remained at the Malad clinic even though the premises had been shut for about a month for renovation. Police said neither the clinic management nor the property owner had been informed that the body was being kept there.Relatives and neighbours, however, were aware of the arrangement, according to police.After questioning the family members, clinic management and the property owner, police ruled out foul play and said the man had died of natural causes. The family also produced documents relating to his death, police said.Cryopreservation—the preservation of cells, tissues or embryos at extremely low temperatures—is an established scientific technique in certain medical and research settings. Cryonics, by contrast, refers to preserving legally dead people with the hope that future technology may eventually make revival possible and remains an experimental practice.Police have not registered a case so far and are consulting experts on the legal aspects of keeping a human body preserved for such a prolonged period.Personnel have been deployed at the clinic while the family decides whether to proceed with its plan to send the body to a facility abroad or perform the last rites.
