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.
Legal situation
Criónica en España
Spain has no rule written for cryopreservation. The closest rules in force are the ones below — which is exactly the gap the initiative works on.
España
No hay normativa específica; hay que acudir a la normativa más próxima para encontrar puntos de conexión o analogía.
There is no specific rule, so the nearest rules in force must be used to find points of connection or analogy.
National rules
Real Decreto 2070/1999, de 30 de diciembre
Regulates the obtaining and clinical use of human organs and territorial coordination on organ and tissue donation and transplantation.
Real Decreto 1723/2012, de 28 de diciembre
Regulates the obtaining, clinical use and territorial coordination of human organs for transplantation, and sets quality and safety requirements.
Decreto 2263/1974, de 20 de julio
Approves the Reglamento de Policía Sanitaria Mortuoria — the mortuary and burial rules that still govern what happens to a body.
Catalunya
Llei 2/1997, de 3 d’abril, sobre serveis funeraris
The funeral services law of Catalonia.
Text consolidat de la Llei 2/1997, de 3 d’abril
The consolidated version of the same funeral services law.
Decret 297/1997, de 25 de novembre
Approves the Reglament de policia sanitària mortuòria — Catalonia's mortuary health police regulations.
What this list shows
Cryopreservation sits between two worlds of law: the rules about organs and clinical use, and the rules about mortuary and burial services. Neither was written with a preserved patient in mind.
That is why the initiative argues that in some jurisdictions the absence of a rule does not mean the practice is fully legal — it means it is unregulated, and the person who chooses it has no guarantee.
A uniform framework, as proposed for the European Union, would set consent, transport, storage and patient-rights rules that every Member State could rely on.
Read the texts
Spanish state rules are published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado. Search any of the titles above there to read the full text.
Official gazette (BOE)Rule titles and the note on the absence of specific legislation come from the initiative's own page at transhumanismcryonics.wordpress.com, carried over on 18 October 2026.
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