[ExI] Cryonics is getting weird

[BillK]

Court: Body must be dug up so that head can be frozen

The Associated Press • May 15, 2010

The siblings of a man who died more than a year ago must exhume his
body so his head can be cut off and cryogenically frozen, the Iowa
Court of Appeals has ruled.

<http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100515/NEWS/5150330>

The court this week sided with Alcor Life Extension Foundation, which
sought to dig up the remains of 81-year-old Orville Richardson of
Burlington. Richardson had signed a contract with Alcor in 2004 and
paid $53,500 to have his head placed in cryonic suspension after his
death.

When he died in February 2009, Richardson's brother and sister buried
him instead, having told him earlier that they would have nothing to
do with his plan, court records show.

Alcor learned Richardson had died two months after his death when his
brother, David Richardson, asked the Scottsdale, Ariz., company to
refund the money already paid.

The company filed a lawsuit seeking to exhume Orville Richardson's
body at its own expense. A Des Moines County District Court judge
denied the request. The appeals court reversed that decision
Wednesday. It said the lower court should have granted Alcor's request
because Richardson's siblings ignored their brother's request "despite
knowledge he had made different arrangements."
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I know the law is the law, but what was Alcor thinking?

This is getting bad publicity around the web.
Are Alcor saying it doesn't really matter if you are frozen within 15
minutes of death?

More here:
<http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20100517/OPINION01/705179983>
Instead of just refusing to refund the money (it was the family’s
fault the company couldn’t keep its end of the bargain), Alcor sued to
exhume the body. The request was denied, but the Iowa Court of Appeals
reversed the decision Wednesday. It said the lower court should have
granted Alcor’s request because the siblings ignored their brother’s
request.

The deadline on that request, however, had long expired.

As AP reported: “It was unclear what condition the body would be in.
According to Alcor, the cryonics process should begin within the first
two minutes after a heart stops, and preferably within the first 15
minutes.”

So the “cryonics process” should start two minutes after a heart
stops, but Alcor wants to dig up a decaying body? Who knew contract
law could be so...creepy.

Alcor’s Web site states: “The purpose of cryonics is to maintain life,
not reverse death.”

We’re not cryonicologists, or appeals court judges, but something is
rotten in the state of Cryonville.
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BillK