Man who cryogenically froze ex-wife sparks debate by dating new partner

A Chinese man who cryogenically froze his dead wife has sparked an online moral debate after Chinese media revealed he had been dating a new girlfriend as his former partner lay preserved in liquid nitrogen.

As a sign of his devotion, Gui Junmin decided to freeze his wife Zhan Wenlian’s body after she died from lung cancer in 2017, aged 49, making her China’s first cryogenically preserved person.

But after a November interview revealed he had been dating a different partner since 2020, Chinese social media has been torn on Mr Junmin’s predicament.

Whilst some asked why the 57-year-old didn’t just “let go” another commenter remarked he appeared to be “most devoted to himself”.

After Zhan Wenlian was given months to live by doctors, Gui Junmin decided to use cryonics – which is scientifically unproven – to preserve her body once she died.

Following her death, he signed a 30-year agreement to preserve his wife’s frozen body with the Shandong Yinfeng Life Science Research Institute.

Since then, Zhan’s body has been stored in a 2,000-litre container at the institute in a vat of -190C liquid nitrogen.

Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly revealed that although Mr Junmin lived alone for two years after the procedure, in 2020 he began dating again, despite his wife remaining in cryopreservation.

He told the newspaper that a severe gout attack which left him unable to move for two days began to change his mind about the benefits of living alone.

Soon after, he started seeing his current partner Wang Chunxia, although Mr Junmin suggested to the paper the love was only “utilitarian” and that she hadn’t “entered” his heart.

Reacting to the news, some commentators on the Chinese social media site Weibo showed sympathy with Mr Junmin’s plight, highlighting how long it had been since his wife was put in the cryogenic chamber.

Some believed it was time for him to move on from his frozen former spouse, adding he should, “let the departed…rest in peace”.

But others suggested the he had acted selfishly to only “satisfy his emotional needs”, with one post questioning “Would Zhan agree to this? Is it fair to Wang?”.

Cryonics is where the whole body is cooled down to sub-zero temperatures, infused with cryoprotectants – which is similar to antifreeze – to prevent ice crystal formation, then preserved in liquid nitrogen.

The hope is that the body can one day be revived when future technology makes this possible.

The practice is currently used at a smaller scale in day-to-day medicine, where living cells such as blood cells, sperm and embryos are frozen at ultra-low temperatures to be stored.

It’s estimated that over 500 people have been cryogenically preserved worldwide, the majority of them in the US.

No one has ever been successfully revived following cryopreservation, and scientists believe that preserving and reawakening the complete human body is still a remote possibility.