From: kqb@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (kevin.q.brown)
Subject: Alcor DHS Suit Win Stands!
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 23:18:56 GMT

[ The following news flash has some history behind it.  To provide context
  for the importance of this news, I also have appended below two earlier
  messages on this topic. - KQB ]

    ------------------------ Forwarded Message ------------------------

> From: alcor@cup.portal.com
> Message-Subject: Please post
> Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 23:02:42 PDT

> To: Cryonet
> From: Carlos Mondragon
> Subject:  News Flash

     The State of California Department of Health Services has thrown in 
the towel.  They have decided NOT to appeal the Michell case to the State 
Supreme Court.  This leave Alcor's victory at the appellate court intact.

     We are now proceeding on our motion for fees in this case.  This part 
of the litigation is being done by our attorneys on a contingency basis.  
So, for the first time in four and one half years, Alcor is not spending 
any money on litigation!

     There will be more news of this in the September issue of Cryonics 
Magazine.

-----

> Date: 04 Oct 90 01:37:58 EDT
> From: STEPHEN BRIDGE <72320.1642@CompuServe.COM>
> Subject: ALCOR WINS BIG!

ALCOR WINS BIG!
A News announcement from Steve Bridge

     October 3 will be a holiday for the Germans, but for cryonicists
October 2nd will be independence day.  On that day, a California judge
agreed with Alcor in its suit against the California Department of Health
Services, effectively making cryonics OVERTLY legal in California.

     Among other points, The DHS is now prohibited from denying completed
death certificates and other forms (including the infamous VS-9, the
disposition of human remains permit) to Alcor and other organizations, at
least on any basis that cryonics is somehow improper or illegal.  In
addition, DHS is enjoined from making statements to hospitals, coroners,
physicians, the press, etc., to the effect that cryonics is illegal or
improper.

     I do not have a list at the moment of the eight specific points 
which Alcor had asked the judge to rule on, but Carlos Mondragon, Alcor's 
President, told me that the judge sided with Alcor on each point and that 
the judge was very careful to address each issue.  The DHS could possibly 
appeal but our attorneys say that the odds on DHS winning the appeal are 
microscopic.  Apparently the Attorney General's office even told the DHS
people to settle with Alcor on this, because Alcor was in the right.

     It is my impression that cryonics in California will come under the
legal umbrella of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, although I have not
seen that in writing yet.  If so, it would be a great step toward
legal acceptance in other states.  All fifty states have the UAGA, so
local attorneys and cryonicists would have a framework for persuasion
provided by the California ruling.  Creating new law at this stage
could be chaotic, but merely following the set-up of an existing law 
may ruffle fewer bureaucratic feathers.

     Alcor has asked informally (and will file the formal request soon)
that the judge additionally require the state to pay the legal fees and
court costs of the lawsuit.  The judge has said he will accept the matter
for consideration, and Alcor's attorney feel we have a good chance to
win this point, as well.  Such a victory would put some teeth in the
decision and perhaps make other hostile governmental entities think
twice before launching ill-conceived and illegal attacks on Alcor.  Not
to mention that it would save us a TREMENDOUS amount of money.

     Of course, CRYONICS magazine will eventually have a fuller and more
authoritative report.  It is likely to pop up in your local newspapers
this week and in some national publications.  Within the next few months
I would not be surprised to see it written up in publications for the 
legal field, as well.  Please send Alcor copies of any coverage you see.

Alcor Life Extension Foundation, 12327 Doherty Street, Riverside CA 92503

     This is not the last legal battle by any means; but this should
open up a lot of doors for us.  It should mean easier cooperation from
hospitals, coroners, and physicians, which is no small thing.  It will 
also go a long way toward pacifying the Riverside County Zoning Board, 
which has been awaiting the outcome of this suit before acting on our 
request for a "conditional use permit" for storing frozen patients in 
our facility.

     We have a long way to go; but it is always nice to win a big one.
Go ahead and celebrate!

-----

> From: alcor@cup.portal.com
> Message-Subject: News Release
> Date: Thu, 11 Jun 92 20:40:29 PDT

                     *****For Immediate Release*****

                          **Alcor Wins Appeal**
     

     Riverside, CA (June 11th, 1992) --  The California Court of Appeal 
yesterday handed down an important decision in favor of the Alcor 
Foundation of Riverside, California.  Alcor, a non-profit research 
institute which places the remains of its legally deceased members into 
"cryonic suspension" (freezing), has been embroiled in litigation with the 
California State Health Department.  The controversy began in 1988, when 
the Registrar's Office of the Health Department began refusing to issue 
death certificates or disposition permits for persons cryonically
suspended.  The Registrar is responsible for keeping vital statistics for 
the State.

     Health Department officials at the time said that cryonics was 
illegal in California because it was not permitted by any specific 
legislation. Alcor sued, and won a sweeping victory in Los Angeles 
Superior Court where Judge Aurelio Munoz decided that its activities were 
constitutionally protected.  Munoz further ruled that Alcor was 
legitimately using the Anatomical Gift Act as authority for storing human 
bodies, and that the State had acted "capriciously".

     The Health Department's appeal of the Munoz decision was unanimously 
rebuffed in the Appellate Court's eleven page ruling.  The justices chided 
the Health Department and the State Attorney General for their handling of 
the case, while upholding Munoz.

     Alcor is the largest provider of cryonics services in the world.  
While the medical establishment has not yet accepted cryonics, recent 
advances in molecular biology and engineering have persuaded a growing 
number of scientists that it can work.  These scientists foresee medical 
devices small enough to repair damaged cells within cryonics patients.  
Growing awareness of this rapidly evolving technology has caused a surge 
of interest in cryonics over the last few years. 

     Alcor has been represented in its case against the Health Department 
by the Century City law firm of Garfield, Tepper, Ashworth and Epstein.

For further information
contact: Carlos Mondragon
(714) 736-1703
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics