X-Message-Number: 31352
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:05:10 -0700
Subject: Many states give rights to decide your body's disposition
From: Finance Department <>

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This is in reference to Message #31348 from Jordan Sparks.  A simple Google
search "states that allow a person to designate who is to be responsible for
the disposition of their body" turns up a number of interesting resources,
especially:

http://www.funerals.org/your-legal-rights/funeral-decision-rights

There are way more than 5 states which have such provisions.  Many states
also give the ability to designate one's personal preference in a will or
similar document, which the next of kin is required to honor and carry out.
Anyone making such a legal designation would not need to designate a person
to be responsible for deciding what to do.

This situation, then, is not as bad as I thought.  Except, of course, for
Marce Johnson.  California, where she presumably still lived, has both
provisions.   The apparent reason, then, that her husband and children
successfully got her cremated is that she made no such designation in
writing.  According to Mike Darwin's writings on the subject, she had no
current cryopreservation paperwork in place, and her husband ended up
refusing to sign any for her.  There is of course a slim chance that (1) she
actually had an old will or other document with such designations in it, and
her family ignored it, or (2) the prior cryonics company(ies) of which she
was a member might have old records containing such a document from her.  If
either of those were the case, it would further compound the magnitude of
this disaster.

No cheers today,

FD

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