I had never really considered this, but while doing some googling about for stuff on cryonics, I ran across a few things on plastination (and freeze drying) as cheap alternatives to cryonics for people that can not afford a cryonic suspension.
Here is a link to a thread entitled. "Plastination: a badly neglected cryonics alternative."
..and here is the link to the Transtopia (yes, I know, I can see your eyes rolling, but this article is fairly interesting) on how the process might be of use. It seems to contain quite a bit of convincing info on it.
I would like to hear from some of the "experts" (Dr. Wowk, Ben Best, others) or just anyone else, that has thoughts on how feasible either freeze drying or chemical preservation (plastination) would be, both in terms of current knowledge about how well they are stored, as well as future resuscitation practicality.
Some of the main advantages might be:
1) Safe and Easier storage (plus easier to handle and move compared to cryonically frozen subjects)
2) Cheaper Storage (room temperature)
3) Perhaps fewer legal trouble with a plastinated subject than with cryonics
4) Lower cost (the main advantage I see), and the procedure is potentially available for free (through body donation)
5) Morally/ethically better than doing nothing, and available to a larger segment of the population
Some of the main disadvantages might be:
1) At room temperature there might be some (slight?) decay that takes place (could plastination be combined with mild cooling?)
2) Could be information loss in the brain (of course, that is a risk for cryonics as well)
As a side note, there are several of these "Bodies" exhibits going around. I know that in Atlanta (where I live) there is this exhibit called Bodies.....The Exhibition, (there are other similar ones too, like BodyWorlds, and others that travel around) which by all accounts is an incredible exhibit. (I haven't been yet, but plan on going sometime in the next month hopefully) I believe that these subjects are preserved by plastination. Wouldn't it be interesting if these subjects were able to be revived at some future date. I wonder how they would feel about waking up in the future while not expecting to have been able to do that.
One of the plastinated individuals on exhibit
Plastination procedure
Freeze drying