Sorry I haven't done much blogging of late, I've been too busy writing replies to messages on our Yahoo! Group, which you can find HERE.

This morning brings a very poorly written article about cryonics from the Miami Herald via the Drudge Report:

NEW FRONTIERS
Lab to freeze humans planned in Boca Raton
South Floridians who seek life after death through cryonics will be preserved at home before being shipped to Arizona.
BY ASHLEY FANTZ

This article is filled with omissions and outright fabrications, so I thought a bit of fisking would be in order. The article is about a company called Suspended Animation that wants to cool patient's bodies in Boca Raton prior to shipment to Alcor in Arizona, where they would be stored long term. Here's the first wacky bit:

Boca Mayor Steven Abrams said he sees no reason to object to such a land use when the matter comes up for a vote next month.

''It's in an area that would permit research. There is no other concern than that,'' he said.

But those who remember the story of Dora Kent may think otherwise. Suspended Animation Chairman Kent, also the president of the company's primary fundraising arm, was suspected of beheading his mother, Dora, 15 years ago in Riverside, Calif. The son told acquaintances he'd had his 83-year-old mother's head cryogenically frozen. The location of Dora Kent's head was unknown.

Kent wasn't charged with a crime. Years later, Alcor officials announced that Dora Kent's head had been at their facility, where it remains to this day.

Sounds pretty sinister, eh? The facts are somewhat different. Here's an excerpt from a Cryonics FAQ:

4-3. What was the Dora Kent case?

Dora Kent is the mother of Saul Kent, a longtime supporter of cryonics and leader of the Life Extension Foundation. On December 11, 1987, she was suspended (head-only) by Alcor. Although Dora was clinically dead at that time, she was not legally dead due to an administrative oversight.

The coroner autopsied the non-suspended portion of Dora's remains. At first the conclusion was that Dora died of pneumonia. Later the coroner retracted this, and on January 7, 1988 the coroner's deputies took all of Alcor's patient care records and attempted to take Dora's head for autopsy. Mike Darwin said that the head was not at Alcor's headquarters and he did not know where it was. Mike Darwin and five other Alcor members were arrested, but when they arrived at the jail the police realized that they had no charges to use against them.

On January 12 and 13, the Coroner's deputies, UCLA police, and a SWAT team again entered Alcor's headquarters and removed all computing equipment in sight, all magnetic media including an answering machine tape, and prescription medications used for suspensions. Many items were taken that were not on the warrant.

Years of legal wrangling ensued. The final outcome was that the coroner lost the next election, Alcor's equipment was returned but damaged, and all charges against Alcor or Alcor members were eventually defeated or dropped. None of Alcor's patients were thawed. Fortunately, no suspensions needed to be done while the police had custody of Alcor's equipment.

References: Cryonics 10(12), December 1989, and 9(1), January 1988.

Alcor was attempting to prevent the LA coroner from thawing and autopsying Dora Kent's brain, as the result would be the end of any hope to revive her at a future date. Since Saul Kent had brought his mother's body to the mortician (who contacted the coroner in the first place), and her death had been ruled due to pneumonia, there was no "suspected of beheading his mother" as the story says. It was quite obvious what had been done, and there was no attempt to mislead the coroner about what happened to her head. Saul Kent was never charged with a crime because a court decided he didn't commit one.

Anyone who is interested in the actual court ruling may view it HERE. Just like any competent journalist would have done.

Here's some more bullshit in the article from someone sucking on the public tit:

Kenneth Goodman, director of the University of Miami School of Medicine's bio-ethics program, said cryonics is a reflection of ``society's denial of mortality.''

''Calling this medicine is unfair because medicine is available to everyone, whereas this is a service for the fantastically wealthy,'' he said.

Regardless of Goodman's status at the University, he obviously lives in a different world than the rest of us, where millions of people have died and WILL die every year because $4.50 is too much to pay for anti-malarial drugs. Medicine, as is apparent to any thinking being, is NOT available for everyone. However, you don't have to be fantastically wealthy to afford cryonic suspension---at the Cryonics Institute, the cost is $28,000, or $35,000 if covered by insurance, which would cost you only a few dollars (depends on your age, say $15) a month. For more information on cryonics, take a look at the Cryonics Institute website.