Iowa court orders relatives to exhume body of man who wanted his head cryogenically frozen

[Are_grits_groceries]

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Court of Appeals has ordered the relatives of a deceased Burlington man to exhume his body so his head can be cut off and cryogenically frozen.

The court sided with Alcor Life Extension Foundation of Scottsdale, Ariz., which sought to dig up the remains of 81-year-old Orville Richardson, who died in February 2009.

Richardson had signed a contract with Alcor to have his head placed in cryonic suspension. When he died, Richardson's brother and sister buried him instead.

Alcor filed a lawsuit to exhume Richardson's body but a Des Moines Country District Court judge ruled against the company, which appealed.

The appeals court overturned the district court's decision Wednesday, saying Alcor was entitled to his remains.
http://www.wqad.com/news/sns-ap-ia--burlingtonbody-cryonics,0,651170.story

Gee, I wonder why this wouldn't work even if the process had been perfected. :sarcasm:

Alcor is going to extremes to get the money from the contract. This is ridiculous, and IMHO a type of fraud. (They know he'll end up as a zombie.*snort*)

[charlie]

1. Yuck

February. 2009. Waaay past its Freshness Date.

If by some miracle he's revived, he'll know what life as a rotted cantaloupe is like.

[canetoad]

2. Meh, sounds like a lot of fun

A final manual check of the refractive index of the cryoprotectant solution verifies that the concentration is sufficient for vitrification (deep cooling without freezing).



http://www.alcor.org/AtWork/index.html

[sandnsea]

3. Yeah I would think fraud too

Even if it worked to whisk away a head to the deep freeze, it certainly wouldn't work after the heads been in the ground 2 years. I would think the judge would just order some kind of financial compensation. Or maybe he's daring these Alcor people to expose their greediness by actually digging up the body.

[aquart]

4. Will there be photographers?

[ixion]

5. Uh, it's a little late now, eh?

I mean, this seems largely academic. The remains are no longer tenable.

[BlueIris]

Interesting. nt

[BlueIris]

6. Dupe. nt