The research project “Suspended Life: Exploring Cryopreservation Practices in Contemporary Societies” (CRYOSOCIETIES) has examined the social and cultural dimensions of the collection, storage, and use of human and non-human organic material through technologies of deep-freezing, also known as cryotechnologies. CRYOSOCIETIES particularly investigated the implications of cryopreservation for temporalities and the concept of life. The project has utilised a range of qualitative research methodologies to explore distinctive empirical fields and sites of cryobanking across various European countries.
CRYOSOCIETIES consisted of four subprojects. The three empirical subprojects investigated (1) the storage of cord blood to prepare for potential regenerative therapies in the future in Germany, focusing on the speculative value and promissory dimensions of cryopreserved umbilical cord blood; (2) the freezing of oocytes to extend fertility and reshape reproductive futures in Spain, exploring the reasons behind women’s decisions to store their eggs and the role oocyte cryopreservation plays within the studied clinics and the broader reproductive sector; (3) the cryopreservation of endangered or extinct species with the aim of halting extinction by securing a frozen “backup” and “to bring them back to life” using reproductive and genetic technologies, concentrating on two British initiatives, the Frozen Ark charity and the CryoArks biobank. The fourth, theoretical subproject examined the implications of a new form of life that cryopreservation practices create: “suspended life”, which allows for the maintenance of vital processes in a liminal state where biological substances are neither fully alive nor ultimately dead.
CRYOSOCIETIES pursued two central objectives. First, to advance the academic debate on cryopreservation by providing empirical knowledge about how “suspended life” is assembled, mobilised, and negotiated across different fields and materials of cryobanking. Secondly, to foster public engagement with and within the field of cryopreservation and cryobanking. As the significance of the life sciences increases, biological material has become a matter of growing concern, raising issues of privacy, data protection, and potential misuse, as well as the prospects of patenting and commercialisation.
