Please watch our 3 min video for a quick overview of why this cause matters.

Brain preservation is a procedure for carefully preserving and protecting the information in a person’s brain at death, for an indefinite length of time afterward. The ultimate goal of preserving someone’s brain is to give them a chance at revival in the future. It is premised on the assumption that the memories and other psychological attributes that many people feel define them are stored in the intricate physical and informational structure of a human brain.

Brain preservation is also premised on the hope that future civilization will eventually progress to the point where it is feasible, sustainable, and humane to reconstruct either a valuable record of a person’s life memories, or if possible, their fully self-conscious identity, from their preserved brain. Whether or when such future events will ever happen is unknown. But we believe modern neuroscience suggests that these are reasonable ideas. 

In 2016, the Brain Preservation Foundation Prize was awarded for a scalable technique that – for the first time – demonstrably preserved the key features of brain structure that neuroscientists know are involved in learning and memory. 

Our best current models suggest that carefully preserving the pattern of connections within the human brain, i.e. our "connectome," alongside essential biomolecules that regulate those connections, will allow the retention and later automated reconstruction of unique and valuable information about a person’s identity, including their long-term memories. This future might sound like science fiction, but this hypothesis is taken seriously by many neuroscientists today. Great progress is currently being made in the preservation, scanning, and emulation of neural connectivity today, and there is no scientific consensus that such a procedure is hopeless in principle.  

We recognize that the prospect of revival is uncertain and that no one knows today what conditions the future will bring. But we do not think these are valid reasons to deny access to a procedure that has value today for the people who desire it. 

There are many reasons why people make the brain preservation choice at the end of their lives today. Some do it as an experiment to potentially contribute to scientific and social progress. Others preserve because they believe they are not truly dead until their unique brain has disappeared. Some preserve as a way to reduce grief and loss for their loved ones. Some also have hope in possible future revival scenarios. Some imagine they will come back in biological form. Others, in technological form. Still others, as some hybrid of biology and technology. We don’t pretend to know what the future holds, or will allow. But we do believe this is a valuable personal choice, one that is presently not recognized, or widely available as a real option, for most of us today.

Here, we are performing advocacy for brain preservationists. We call upon the global scientific, medical, and legal communities, as well as local and national governments, to immediately make changes in norms, policy, and laws in end-of-life medicine and care, to allow brain preservation to be accessible as an elective procedure at death, and for this procedure to be regulated so that it is done in a competent, sustainable, and humane way. 

To the scientific community, we call upon you for open debate on the plausible informational, societal, and personal value of brain preservation at end-of-life. Discussion of this topic should not be taboo. Scientists should be free to discuss it with their colleagues, in journals, and as a potential public benefit of their work in grant applications, without censure. Many preservation techniques exist today, such as pure cryopreservation​​, aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation, and room temperature chemopreservation, yet few have been validated to preserve the delicate shape and structure of whole human brains. It is important for humanity that we go looking for new and better techniques for brain preservation.

To the medical community, we call upon you to help develop and validate elective brain preservation, including the medical ethics and language of informed consent, and integrate it into end-of-life care for those who are interested in pursuing it in hospitals, hospices, or homes, wherever and however they face impending death. Patients with terminal illnesses deserve for this to be available today, with the full support and cooperation of their healthcare teams, and without professional bias, judgment, or stigma in making this personal choice. 

To the legal community, and to our local and national governments, we call upon you to change norms, policies, and laws that do not presently respect brain preservation as an elective medical procedure, one that deserves to be available to any who might desire it immediately after their death, as a recognized patient right in a just society. Currently, with our existing medico-legal frameworks, elective brain preservation is often delayed after death, in ways that people cannot opt out of, even after legal and medical preparations. This delay leads to unnecessary decomposition of the brain, and may irreparably damage the structures that contain our memories. These restrictive laws must be changed with haste.  

To our political, cultural, and religious leaders, we call upon you to work with the above communities to explore the science, politics, economics, cultural, and spiritual issues around this choice, to discuss it with your constituents without prejudice, and to seek more equitable ways to develop, regulate, and integrate it into society.

Brain banking for scientific research is already a commonly performed procedure in most jurisdictions of the world. All we are asking is that people should be allowed to donate their brains to this endeavor as well, and to have their brains preserved with the best chance that their unique memories, desires, insights, and identities may eventually be brought back to life if that ever becomes possible. 

We recognize the ethical considerations that must be taken into account when discussing this issue. We believe that brain preservation must be well-regulated, appropriately consented to, and ethically performed. The brain preservation choice deserves to be made as accessible as possible within our existing healthcare systems and to be free from any overt or implicit coercion, both for or against the choice.

We also understand that brain preservation can be expensive and that many of the existing methods are not currently attainable for all people at the end of life. We call upon scientists, technologists, and physicians to develop low-cost options, and for governments and philanthropists to make the necessary funds available so that all individuals who wish to pursue brain preservation at the end of life will be able to have access to it. 

At present, such numbers are quite small. In surveys to date, anywhere from 1-20% of respondents indicate they might make this end-of-life choice, depending on where and when the question is asked, and how it is framed. This is already a group deserving reasonable societal accommodation, not discrimination.

To be clear, the signers of this petition may not desire brain preservation for themselves. That is a deeply personal decision, and also one that may change over time. The purpose of signing this letter is simply to express clearly that everyone deserves the autonomy to pursue brain preservation with cooperation, dignity, and without interference. We believe everyone deserves the freedom, as long as it does not harm others, to exercise their own personal approach to death, consistent with the best practices that science and medicine can deliver today, and with the best future capabilities that they believe and hope may one day be available to humanity. 

To learn more about brain preservation, please visit the Brain Preservation Foundation website. 

If you agree with this petition, please sign it, share your thoughts and comments, and share it with friends and family if you can. Let’s show the world that people care about allowing global access to brain preservation, for all those who wish to pursue it.