The Medico-Legal Need for a Cryonics-Friendly Autopsy9th Annual Colloquium on the Law of Futuristic Persons

December 10, 2013

Lori Rhodes, Legal ResearcherTerasem Movement, Inc.

In this technological age, where science fiction can quickly become science fact, NOW the time to consider certain options ~ later may likely to be, too late.

I am resolute in my advocacy for cryonics. Contrary to what one may think, I am NOT currently a member of a cryonics organization, but I firmly believe in aperson’s right to elect cryopreservation.

What fuels my belief?

I am the daughter of a Funeral Director; raised in a household where death was a frequent topic. I learned at an early age that most people prefer to remain selectively ignorant of dying, death, funerals, or the like until they or a loved one are on the brink of death.

Everyone dies, or do they?

Credit: Public Domain, Simmler Death of Barbara Radziwiłł

Cryopreservation Related Facts:• Cryopreservation is the process of freezing an organic substance at sub-zero temperatures, suspending harmful or damaging cellular or chemical activity. • Upon electing cryopreservation, the law allows a person to donate his/her neuro (head) or full body to a designated cryonics organization by completing a Uniform Anatomical Gift Act1 Form (these forms vary per US state/territory).• A cryopreservation may be waylaid, compromised or even prevented by a forensic autopsy, routinely performed when a person dies suddenly, foul play is suspected, or the cause of death is not known.• The circumstances of legal death vary greatly and carry an approximate 7% chance that a forensic or medico-legal autopsy will be performed. (Stats based on reported deaths in 20032)• Though adhering to the directives of a decedent is ethically, traditionally and legally enforced, there are currently no legal or regulatory bodies in place to prevent a coroner or medical examiner from performing an invasive autopsy on a member of a cryonics organization (Members of a cryonics organization are commonly called cryonicists).• Costly and avoidable litigation within our judicial system is an continuing result of the absence of such law.

1 U.S. Uniform Anatomical Gift Act http://anatomicalgiftact.org/DesktopDefault.aspx May 12, 2010 2:05PM EST2 Hoyert DL, Kung HC, Xu J. Autopsy patterns in 2003. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital Health Stat 20(32). 2007, 8.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_20/sr20_032.pdf May 12, 2010 1:39PM EST

• Of the 2000+ current members of cryonics organizations, a recent survey1 indicates 1 in every 17 cryopreservations, as many as 142, may be compromised or prevented by a forensic autopsy.• Waylaying the cryopreservation process will result in cellular degradation and a less-than-optimal cryopreservation.• A less-than-optimal cryopreservation will result in the need for greater strides in medicine and technology before a revival is possible or perfected.• Thwarting a forensic autopsy is paramount to a member of a cryonics organization2.• Having or proving a religious objection to autopsy may not be enough.• Is there an option if a forensic autopsy is legally necessary?

Issues

1 http://www.cryonics.org and http://www.alcor.org 2 Alcor Life Extension Foundation v. Richardson, 2010 Iowa App. LEXIS 422, No. 0-098/09-1255 (Iowa Ct. App. May 12, 2010)(available at http://www.alcor.org/Library/pdfs/RichardsonCase.pdf); and In re Robbins, No. 2010PR149 (Colo D.C. Mar 1, 2010 - available at http://www.alcor.org/Library/pdfs/Alcor-RobbinsSettlement.pdf).

Analysis:

• Thwarting a forensic or medico-legal autopsy is equally important to the cryonics organization and members.

• Donation of a decedent’s full body or neuro should be treated with the identical or greater medical and legal urgency and respect as organ donation; both are life saving measures.

• If a forensic or medico-legal autopsy cannot be stopped by a decedent’s next of kin, legal representative or by proof of religious objection, then a virtual autopsy or virtopsy, one that employs scanning vs invasive and time-consuming dissection, should be requested or demanded.

1 Thompson v. Deeds, 93 Iowa 228, 231, 61 N.W. 842, 843 (1895).

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Scanning vs Dissection

• Since 2000, virtopsies (virtual autopsies) have been routinely performed during forensic investigations as a ‘minimally-invasive and observer-independent’ procedure’.• “[D]igital imaging data can be stored permanently and may be re-examined at any time if a second opinion is required.”1

• In a court of law, “Virtopsy provides excellent tools for crime and accident reconstruction, including 3D depictions of internal injuries, 3D true color representations of surface injuries and even 3D scaled models of entire crime scenes and events. The Virtopsy approach reproduces critical forensic evidence in an unbiased and comprehensible fashion, suitable for presentation as evidence to laypersons and legal professionals.”2

• “Replacing autopsy with postmortem imaging will shift the cost burden rather than solve budgetary problems.”3

• Most Coroners (political in position) and Medical Examiners (M.D.s, usually pathologists) believe the virtual autopsy a suitable substitute to the traditional autopsy.

1 http://www.virtopsy.com/about-virtopsy.html2 id.3 Burton,E.C.,MD; and Mossa-Basha, M., MD. (2012). To Image or to Autopsy. Annals of Internal Medicine, p. 158. http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1033303&resultClick=3

Possible Solutions

• Existing case law is persuasive in a strict adherence to a person’s cryopreservation wishes as stated within Thompson v. Deeds, 93 Iowa 228, 231, 61 N.W. 842, 843 (1895), it is the “duty of the courts to see to it that the expressed wish of one, as to final resting place, shall, so far as it is possible, be carried out”1. • Prudence dictates a cryonicist’s openness with his/her physician regarding their cryopreservation directives or wishes, thus a thorough preparedness plan should include discussing the preference of a virtopsy over autopsy with one’s physician, should one be deemed necessary by a Coroner.• A Coroner is a government official, thus petitioning his/her office may assist in lobbying the legislature and/or the US Department of Health and Human Services (the regulatory agency overseeing the handling and disposition of human remains) toward protecting the rights of cryonicists in their desire not to be autopsied, but if necessary, to be virtopsied; allowing the chosen cryonics organization to receive an anatomical neuro or full-body donation in a most expeditious and least invasive manner.

Conclusion:

• Bring to the medical and legal forefronts, by petition and lobbying, the need for a virtual autopsy to be routinely and expeditiously performed on a decedent whose express wish it was to be cryopreserved.

• Quick release of the neuro or full body of a cryonicist by a coroner or medical examiner will allow the donor organization to honor its contractual obligation to the cryonicist, honor the rights and wishes of the cryonicist and allow for the most optimal crypreservation.

Thank you.

Disclaimer: Though I am a legal professional I am not an attorney, thus none of the content of this PPT is to be interpreted or viewed as legal advice.