A Russian cryogenics firm wants to freeze people before they die in an effort to bring them back to life in the future.

KrioRus is raising money to open a lab in Switzerland - where euthanasia is legal - to carry out the controversial procedure.

By freezing a body before death, scientists say they can avoid extensive brain damage, increasing the chance that the body can some day be brought back to life.

If plans go ahead, this would be the first time a company would freeze a body that is not biologically dead.

Scroll down for video

Currently freezing someone alive constitutes killing them but in Switzerland euthanasia is legal and proponents of this practice say bodies could be thawed to continue living their lives. This image shows one of the firms cryo-coffins being transported

CRYOGENICS Cryogenics is the art of freezing bodies by preserving a dead body with liquid nitrogen. Currently, it can only legally happen when someone has just been declared dead. The freezing process must begin as soon as the patient dies in order to prevent brain damage, with facilities currently only available in Russia and the US. In the procedure, the body is cooled in an ice bath to gradually reduce its temperature bit by bit. Experts then drain the blood and replace it with an anti freeze fluid to stop harmful ice crystals forming in the body. However, last week they launched a cryptocurrency offering to raise money for their new centre, which people from around the world could come to just before they died. If plans go ahead, this would be the first time the company would work on a body that is not biologically dead. Advertisement

Cryogenics is the art of freezing bodies by preserving a dead body with liquid nitrogen.

Currently, cryopreservation has only been performed when someone is legally dead.

The freezing process must begin as soon as the patient dies in order to prevent brain damage, with facilities currently only available in Russia and the US.

In the procedure, the body is cooled in an ice bath to gradually reduce its temperature bit by bit.

Experts then drain the blood and replace it with an anti freeze fluid to stop harmful ice crystals forming in the body.

However, Moscow-based cryonics KrioRus has now launched a cryptocurrency offering to raise money for its new Swiss centre, which people from around the world could come to just before they died, writes News Week.

The idea is that the body will already been alive when revived, which could make it easier than bringing back bodies from the dead .

It could also avoid the last-minute rush to put the body on ice and carry out the vitrification.

The company already has 50 human bodies or heads and 20 animals frozen in tanks in Russia - but these were all frozen after death.

They are located inside a modest, unheated warehouse in a quiet snow-covered village surrounded by private houses some 47 miles (76 km) northeast of the Kremlin.

The process is unproven to work and extremely controversial. Many experts say there is no hope of being brought back to life.

Organs such as the heart and kidneys have never been successfully frozen and thawed, so it is even less likely a whole body – and the brain – could be without irreversible damage.

In theory their body would be re-awoken in decades or centuries when there is a cure for the disease they were about to die from. This image shows flowers being laid in one of its cryo-coffins

Currently, the firm charges $36,000 (£27,000) to freeze a body and $12,000 (£9,000) to freeze a head.

It also offers cryopreservation services for your pets, including £8,234 ($10,600) to preserve a 'little cat' and £20,000 ($25,800) to preserve a 'big dog'.

Remains are stored for decades, centuries or even longer in large Dewar flask deep freezers.

However, a UK company believes the cost of the procedure will rapidly drop over the next decade, to just £5,000 ($6,572) for 250 years, helping make it a common practice.

If plans go ahead, this would be the first time the company would work on a body that is not biologically dead. Remains are currently stored for decades, centuries or even longer in large Dewar flask deep freezers

Stem Protect estimates that costs could more than halve over the next five to ten years.

Speaking to MailOnline, Mark Hall, company spokesman said: 'It's a service we could offer today, just not at that price.

'It would probably cost around £50,000 to £75,000 ($65,000 to $100,000).

'It's a bit like Moore's law, technology improves over time, and as more and more facilities are built it will get cheaper and cheaper.

The company has launched a cryptocurrency offering to raise money for its new Swiss centre, which people from around the world could come to. Pictured is one of their coffins

'I think in a few years it will be possible to have whole warehouses that are one giant facility, although you wouldn't want to walk through them. That would significantly reduce the price.'

At the end of August KrioRus also announced plans to blast the dead into space after their bodies have been frozen.

With space a premium here on Earth, experts at KrioRus see outer space as a 'land of opportunity' for future burials.

The cost of preserving a body to stay in space has been slated to start at around £240,000 ($250,000).

The cryonics company says frozen bodies, DNA samples and even the bodies of pets could be blasted into the atmosphere under the plans.

Since 2005, KrioRus says it has frozen the bodies and brains of 54 people, eight dogs, nine cats, three birds, and incredibly, even one pet chinchilla, at their facility

Anti-freeze compounds are injected into the corpse to stop cells being damaged. The hope is that medical science will advance enough to bring the patient back to life. Pictured is there centre outside Moscow