Slashdot has reported some facinating advances in medical science where Doctors are claiming that they can noinduce hypothermia in trauma patients to effectively suspend their body functions for up to three hours.
Obviously this has caused a massive thread on slashdot with lots of religious arguments. I’m going to avoid all that discussion and just comment that this may actually help in the battle field. Imagine a scenario where a soldier has sustained a would-be fatal injury and has lost a lot of blood.
If they could compress the equipment required into a battle field deployable pack a medic could get to the soldier suspend their body functions until they could be airlifted for life saving treatment.
Of course, the question is, depending on the nature of your injuries, life might not be worth living if you are saved.