X-Message-Number: 32210
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 11:26:27 -0500
Subject: Man wanted body frozen after death
From: John Bull <>

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This was in *FLORIDA TODAY  *December* 11 *issue
John Bull
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*Man wanted body frozen after death.*

TAMPA - The nation's leading cryogenics organiz ation lost its bid Thursday
to prevent an autopsy on a 48year-old man who wanted his body frozen until
he could be brought back to life.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Martha Cook told the county medical examiner to
resume the autopsy on Mi chael Ned Miller, which was interrupted shortly
after it began by a call from Alcor* *Life Extension Foundation Inc. of
Scottsdale, Ariz. Cook denied Alcor's  request for a stay pending an appeal
of her order.

"The court will not inter fere with (the medical exam iner's) duty," Cook
said.



After the hearing and a hurried round of negotia tions, Hillsborough County
Medical Examiner Vernard Adams told Health News Florida that he will keep
the cuts to an absolute minimum out of "kindness" to the fam ily.

"I don't see any sense in it being a hard process," he said. For example, he
said would cut open the skull but will scan the brain rather than cut into
it for tissue samples.



Alcor had brought a rabbi to testify, because Miller was Jewish, but the
judge took no testimony. She said the law giving medical examiners the right
to override private preferences about autopsies is clear.



Miller was found dead by his sister in his north Tampa apartment on Dec. 3,
10 days after a leg surgery. Hills borough County Medical Examiner Vernard
Adams told Health News Florida that he began conducting an. autopsy because
Miller "had a history of prescription drug abuse, and I am con cerned that
he (may have) died of an accidental drug overdose."

Alcor argued in court doc uments that an autopsy would "seriously impair the
cryonic process" and. "frus trate the purpose" of the body freezing: to keep
his body preserved until some point in the distant future when scientists
learn how to fix what killed him ..

Miller, a Navy veteran, . had been in bad health for years, according to the
law suit. He had a heart defect, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, eye
problems and past leg surgeries.

He had long been sepa rated from his wife, the suit said. When he signed up
with Alcor in May 2005, the documents gave Alcor the  right to override next
of kin and argue for him in court .

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