The quest to understand “what happens next” has taken some bizarre twists and turns in history.
But, in 2022, perhaps the most unusual breakthrough of all occurred,
as science tries to achieve that seemingly ultimate end goal for humanity; immortality.
It’s not every day you get to discuss zombie pigs in the context of a genuine
scientific study, but that’s what’s happening here.
This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question;
did scientists just prove life after death, with zombie pigs?
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Broadly speaking, it can be said that life after death can take one of two forms;
either you die and are transported to some other plane or dimension, to live on in an
afterlife that isn’t on Earth as we know it… or you die and are then brought back to life,
primed and ready to continue existing on this planet just as before. Today, we’re focussing
on the latter, and a study that seems to shed some new hope in the bid to live forever.
The study, published in the journal “Nature” in August 2022, saw a Yale University research team
deliver a blood substitute back into the bodies of pigs that had been dead for one hour. The formula,
which was passed through the bodies via a cutting edge system known as OrganEx, contained a mixture
of the animals’ original blood plus extras, including anticoagulants. In a development that’s
been widely described as “stunning”, it was found that the process had a restorative effect on some
of the organs within the pig’s apparently dead body. The earliest stages of decomposition were
noticeably slowed down, and some key functions even returned - including within the liver and
kidneys, and within the heart, which incredibly began to beat again. The pigs’ bodies began
receiving and spreading oxygen again, processing sugars again, and producing some proteins.
While this particular study didn’t stretch so far as to see an impact on the brain, it was
actually conceived as a follow up to a previous experiment, in 2019, which did focus on the brain,
again of pigs. The 2019 study was also published in “Nature”, and was conducted predominantly by
the same team at Yale. It found that, in some cases, a pig’s brain could be effectively
restarted. By pumping into the brain an earlier version of the blood substitute, this time called
BrainEx, key metabolic processes were reignited. Brain cells were also retained compared to those
in an untouched control group, which broke down as expected. The time between death and
apparent resuscitation was even longer in this case, too, at up to four hours. Although then
(and now) the team is wary about emphasizing any further implications.
Naturally, if we’re seeing hearts that start beating again and brains that begin
functioning again, the next question is; have those organs also regained consciousness? The
nature of consciousness is certainly complex, with scientific and philosophical debates all over
about how we define what it is, where it might be said to originate, and whether it can continue
long after we’re gone, even when our physical bodies are no more. With this in mind, there were
procedures in place during both experiments for a scenario where consciousness noticeably returned,
such as having anesthetics ready. However, it was found that consciousness didn’t return in either
study. There was evidence that the brains could still host electrical signals in 2019, and there
was activity monitored in the heart in 2022… but so far no pig has been brought fully back to life.
What’s more, the potential applications for human organs are still very unknown.
Nevertheless, the news has been variously described as the “zombie pig” study,
for obvious reasons. In the modern world, we really do now have the key components
of an animal that was dead being coaxed back into action… and that’s reminiscent
of many a Frankenstein-type horror story, or Hollywood blockbuster sci-fi. But of course
there are huge and real-world ethical questions at play here, not least about the understanding
of when someone or something has definitely died. Between cardiac death and brain death, there are
already differences of opinion, with different countries and states applying the rule of death
in different ways. But now, with vital organs showing clear signs of life even hours after both
deaths could’ve been declared, might it be time to rethink exactly what that word “death” means?
Looking much further ahead, and although those behind this latest study have stressed that their
findings aren’t yet “clinically relevant”, what directions could we be heading down? At
its simplest and perhaps most optimistic, might the OrganEx solution and similar technologies be
used to more effectively obtain and store organs for donation? That’s certainly one route that
has already been discussed, with it being hoped that the OrganEx method will eventually yield
more organs and higher transplant success rates. Could there also be changes ahead for a dying
person, though? Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (or CPR) was first widely used in the 1950s,
and since then it has proven a vital tool in bringing patients back from the brink of
death. Thanks to CPR, there’s already a brief window where, if the heart stops beating,
that person isn’t necessarily dead… and today we’ve almost come to expect that as standard.
However, if these latest findings do hold up to further testing, then that window could well be
widening in a big way. A few minutes becomes an hour or more, and the entire approach to
declaring death would need to be rethought. Again, though, even based on these results
we’re still a long way away from that scenario. At present, it’s more as though we have the
murmurings of life returning… and, remember, that’s in a pig’s body and not a human’s.
There are many steps between here and a full-scale resurrection of a fully conscious person.
There’s perhaps a more dystopian version of the future guided by science like this,
too, however, where pigs and other animals (even humans) are continually brought back.
Where dying lives are kept in a kind of “mid-state” indefinitely. Or where creatures
do regain consciousness, but the quality of their returned life is diminished. After all,
if the subjects of this study are to be tagged as “zombie pigs”, we need only to look at most zombie
characterizations to know that the undead aren’t usually best pleased to have returned. Quickly,
there could be accusations launched that this is “scientists playing god”. That those doing the
resuscitating have a power that could be misused. Again, it’s why those behind BrainEx and OrganEx
are keen to highlight the need for thorough ethical guidelines going forwards. This could
well prove to be a major breakthrough that one day literally (and forever) changes the definition of
what it is to die. A shift as fundamental for our species as that requires so much consideration.
What’s your verdict on this study? Is it promising for the future,
or are you worried about what it could mean? For now, the search for immortality
goes on… but perhaps we’ve never been closer to actually achieving it. Under lab conditions,
it has been shown that the organs of dead pigs can to some degree be brought
back to life. Across two experiments, there have been signs of life returning to the brain,
the heart, liver, kidneys, and to the body in general. Crucially, though, scientists have not
yet observed the return of consciousness. That’s one major development that still hasn’t happened,
and it’s tied up in deep ethical concerns over what it’s really right to do. Or even attempt.
Should we be pushing for reanimation in animals? In people? Is this study about more than just the
“mad scientist” stereotype, re-birthing life where once it had been lost? Or are there some things
that just shouldn’t be meddled with? Regardless, that’s why, although they might not have proved
life after death just yet, scientists have taken another big step towards it - with zombie pigs.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other
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