X-Message-Number: 22452
From: "Ben Best" <>
Subject: Uniform Anatomical Gift Act URLs
Date: Mon,  1 Sep 2003 16:38:12 -0700

     As has been posted to CryoNet, the cemetery
authorities in Michigan are attempting to bring the 
Cryonics Institute under its regulations and have issued
a "Cease and Desist" order for taking new patients. It 
has been suggested on CryoNet that we agree to be 
subjected to these regulations, but I think we would have 
far more freedom to deliver the best in patient care if we 
could operate under the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act as 
Alcor has done successfully for many years. Without the 
UAG authority, all procedures will have to be done in a 
funeral home by licensed funeral directors only -- there
will be no authority for any action by a standby team,
by helpful relatives or even by medical personnel which
can legally be done to a "corpse" -- not even the 
administration of heparin or CPR. 

       I am posting these URLs to CryoNet in the hope
that there are people on the list with the knowledge
or diligence to see possibilities in one of these links 
that could be used to help establish the Cryonics
Institute as an Anatomical Donee. Alcor may be 
next!!  So it behooves us to "put our heads 
together" on dealing with this problem. 

  http://www.med.umich.edu/anatomy/donors/

     This gives information on donation to medical 
schools in Michigan, but at the bottom there are
references to registries unrelated to medical schools
and hospitals, which would be relevant. The 
procedure for registration or authorization for these 
"registries" would be of interest. 

  http://www.esjpc.com/a_cadaver.htm

     This analysis makes me wonder if there is so 
much respect being given to the rights of relatives 
(and victims?) to choose the disposition of remains
 -- if there should be respect for the choice of victims
 or relatives concerning *who*  (what organization) 
the remains are given to (the donee). 

  http://www.law.upenn.edu/bll/ulc/fnact99/uaga87.pdf

    These guidelines of the national commission 
presumably are used by individual states in setting 
their policies. 

   http://www.med.ufl.edu/anatbd/usprograms.html

      The programs listed for Michigan are all medical 
schools, but this is not the the case for all the other 
states. Perhaps by searching for information about 
storage facilities (not hospitals or medical schools) in
other states we could find ideas to impliment the 
anatomical donee status. Since bureaucrats must be 
able to understand that cryonics organizations are not 
cemeteries, but are nonetheless insistant that we be 
regulated by them, we could distinguish ourselves by 
qualifying as BOTH anatomical donees AND cemeteries 
-- thus satisfying the regulators while keeping a free 
hand to deliver standby care. 

  http://www.clk.k12.mi.us/chs/Gift%20of%20Life/Policyarea.htm

       This describes the use of the Uniform Anatomical 
Gift act by the Michigan organ donation group "Gift of 
Life Agency". If the means by which this is done could be
argued to be applicable to cryonics it would be what 
we want. But it seems as if the cryonicist is 
donating the body to the future self rather than to another
person, so it might be a hard arguement to make. Perhaps
a donation to research -- the objective of which is to see
if future science will be able to reanimate the corpse? 
If we could convince them that this is a religious belief
we might be able to hide under the umbrella of religion,
but otherwise I don't think we could carry this argument
too far with most authorities. 


                    -- Ben Best

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