European Cryonic Law and Policy Research Initiative

A journey through space and time: by Jordi Sandalinas, lawyer. Addressing legal and policy issues around longevity, lifespan, transhumanism, health, bioethics and cryonics in Europe.

European Cryonic Law & Policy Research Initiative

A journey through space and time.

Science, law and policy of human cryopreservation in Europe — with the newest open research in one place.

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Latest research

Newest peer-reviewed papers, updated automatically from the free Europe PMC database.

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Reference model

The importance of Alcor…

The leading model for a European cryonics centre

Founded in California in 1972 by Fred and Linda Chamberlain and based in Scottsdale, Arizona since 1994, Alcor is the oldest and largest cryonics organisation in the world — and the clearest picture of what a dedicated cryopreservation centre can be.

263

people in cryogenic care

1,500+

members in 28 countries

years of continuous work

100+

pets also preserved

Why it is the model

One centre, one chain of care. Standby, surgery, vitrification, long-term storage and daily monitoring all happen under the same roof, so nothing is lost between handovers.
Round-the-clock response. Its Deployment and Recovery Team is on call anywhere in the world — response time is the single biggest factor in preservation quality.
Research with real medical uses. Work on vitrification and organ and tissue preservation feeds directly into transplant medicine, and the results are shared openly.
Financing built to last decades. Care is funded through a dedicated Patient Care Trust, so storage does not depend on that year's income.
Open governance. Board meetings are open to members and statistics and protocols are published — exactly the transparency regulators ask for.

Preservation is normally financed with a life insurance policy rather than savings: about USD 220,000 for whole-body preservation and USD 80,000 for neuropreservation.

What a European centre can copy

A single EU facility with its own standby teams, instead of cross-border handovers.
Common medical protocols, audited and published, that every Member State can rely on.
A research programme tied to hospitals and organ banking.
A trust fund model that guarantees care for people who signed up fifty years ago.
Public reporting and ethics review as a condition of operating.

Visit alcor.org Read the appreciation page See the EU proposal

Ask the research helper

Ask about cryonics research

Type a question. The helper answers in plain language with short findings, publication dates and links to open-access papers from the feed below.

Answers are generated by a language model from the open-access paper list above; the papers themselves are the source. Ask again if an answer is unclear.

From the archive

News and articles

Everything the initiative has published since 2015 stays online. Here are the most recent entries — the full list is one click away.

Open the full news archive Publications about cryonics Events

Our mission

A non-profit legal research initiative created by lawyer Jordi Sandalinas to study the main legal issues around the legality of cryonics in Europe, under the laws already in force.

We encourage national and international bodies to enact legal instruments in favour of human cryopreservation, addressing longevity, lifespan, transhumanism, health and bioethics.

Overview

Cryonics in the world and in Europe

In the world

In Europe

The European Union has no common law on cryonics yet: each Member State applies its own funeral and health rules, which is why a shared EU framework and centre are needed.

Where we stand

Cryonics in the European Union

The EU has no law that mentions cryonics, either to allow it or to forbid it. Every Member State decides on its own, so the same person can be treated completely differently from one border to the next.

No common EU law today

Cryonics is not named in any EU regulation or directive. Each country applies its own funeral, health and consent rules — that is why the outcome differs so much across Europe.

EUR-Lex, the EU law database — searched 18 October 2026

Two petitions before the Parliament

Petition 0266/2022 (registered 2022) and petition 1652/2025 (admitted 2025) ask the EU to study the legal status of cryopreservation.

European Parliament petitions portal — status checked 18 October 2026

What the initiative asks for

One European framework: clear consent rules, safe cross-border transport of patients, minimum storage standards and independent ethics oversight.

Initiative position, based on the sources above

Until the EU acts, the centre proposed below is the practical answer: one place, one set of standards, one legal base.

Proposal

A European Cryonics Centre

Europeans who choose cryopreservation today often depend on facilities far away, with long transport times and conflicting national rules. A shared EU centre would change that.

Faster care

Shorter transport times protect tissue quality — the most critical factor in good preservation.

Common standards

One set of minimum EU rules for consent, transport, storage and the rights of patients.

Open science

A public research hub for cryobiology, organ banking and brain preservation, sharing data openly.

Legal certainty

Clear status for preserved persons, their wills and their assets across all Member States.

Free movement

Cross-border transport of cryopatients under the EU single market for services.

Ethics oversight

Independent bioethics review, transparency and protection of human dignity.

European Parliament

The initiative in Brussels

Lawyer Jordi Sandalinas, LL.M., founder of this initiative, has brought the right to choose cryopreservation before the European Parliament through citizen petitions.

2018 — Publishes “Cryopreservation and Law: A necessary coexistence in Europe”.
2021 — Speaks at Biostasis 2021 on EU minimum standards for cryopreservation and transport.
2022 — Petition No. 0266/2022 asks the EU to recognise cryonics as an end-of-life option.
2025 — Petition No. 1652/2025 is admitted, asking the Commission to set unified EU standards.

He also lectures on space law and astrobiology at the International Space University in Strasbourg.

Support petition 1652/2025 EU Petitions portal

Watch

Plan B: la criónica o criopreservación en España

Plan B: la criónica en el mundo y en España

Last reviewed 18 October 2026

Sources & copyright

Every text on this page is an original summary written for this site. Facts come from the public sources below and we link to them instead of copying their content. Each entry shows when it was published or last checked and what its licence allows. Entries marked check before reuse have no clear licence for copying — contact the source first.

Research feed — Europe PMC REST API
Date: Service updated continuously; feed last checked 18 October 2026
Licence: Bibliographic metadata is free to reuse through the API. The papers themselves stay with their authors and publishers.
Check before reuse — Open-access papers carry Creative Commons terms that differ from paper to paper — check each paper's own licence before republishing it.
Europe PMC copyright statement
Date: Policy page, no publication date given; consulted 18 October 2026
Licence: Reference document — we link to it and do not reproduce it.
Mission text and header photo — original site
Date: Site running since 2018; text and photo taken 18 October 2026
Licence: Author's own material (Jordi Sandalinas), all rights reserved; used here by the author.
EUR-Lex — the EU's database of law
Date: Database updated continuously; searched for cryonics and cryopreservation terms on 18 October 2026
Licence: EU documents may be reused provided the source is acknowledged.
Sandalinas J., “Cryopreservation and Law: A necessary coexistence in Europe. A perspective from the existing framework in Spain”
Date: 2018 — 8 pages, self-published
Licence: The author retains the rights; reuse needs the author's permission.
Check before reuse — No formal licence is stated on the page.
European Parliament — Petitions portal (petitions 0266/2022 and 1652/2025)
Date: Petition 0266/2022 registered in 2022; petition 1652/2025 admitted in 2025; status checked 18 October 2026
Licence: European Union documents may be reused provided the source is acknowledged.
Check before reuse — Petition status changes — confirm it on the portal before quoting it.
Asociación Criónica Española — petition support page
Date: Publication date not given on the page; checked 18 October 2026
Licence: The association's own material; no reuse licence is stated.
Check before reuse — Ask the association before copying any of it.
Alcor Life Extension Foundation — official site
Date: Publication dates not given; facts checked 18 October 2026 (founded 1972, in Scottsdale since 1994)
Licence: Website content is all rights reserved; we summarise the facts in our own words and link to them.
Check before reuse — Patient numbers and prices change over time — verify them before republishing.
Wikipedia — Cryonics
Date: Article revised continuously; accessed 18 October 2026
Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 — you may reuse it if you credit the authors and share your copy under the same licence.
Check before reuse — Share-alike applies to text you reuse, not to the underlying facts.
“Plan B” videos (YouTube embeds)
Date: Publication dates not verified here; embedded 18 October 2026
Licence: Standard YouTube licence: the videos may be played through YouTube's own player.
Check before reuse — Downloading or re-uploading them is not allowed.
Ice-crystal picture (top of the page)
Date: Created for this site in October 2026
Licence: Made for this project; no third-party rights claimed.
Header photo of the glass towers
Date: From the original site; taken 18 October 2026
Licence: Author's own photograph.

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