By Judy Skatssoon, National Medical Writer

SYDNEY, Sept 19, AAP - In a promotion stunt to end all promotion stunts, a science magazine is offering one lucky reader the chance to have their body frozen until scientists figure out how to bring them back to life.

New Scientist magazine is offering a prize of cryonic preservation for a reader whose entry form, along with tokens from tomorrow's issue and four upcoming issues, is drawn from a barrel.

This means the winner, once pronounced legally dead, will be prepared and cooled to a temperature that prevents decay.

Their body will then be suspended in liquid nitrogen until medical technology arrives at the point where it is possible for the person to be healed, revived and awoken to a second chance of life.

The competition is open to readers around the world.

The cryonics treatment, valued at $28,000, will be provided by the Cryonics Institute of Michigan in the United States.

It is a matter of debate whether or not cryonics will ever actually work.

Editor-in-chief of New Scientist, Alun Anderson, said the promotion was designed to highlight the magazine's new design.

"We think that the cryonics promotion is a way of making science interesting to everyone, not just scientists, which is the message we are trying to communicate about the magazine itself,' Mr Anderson said.

However, he admitted that being indefinitely frozen after shuffling off the mortal coil may not be everyone's cup of tea.

The winner can also accept an alternative prize of a trip to Hawaii.

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Sources: AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS 19/09/2002