X-Message-Number: 18757
Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 03:01:03 -0500 (EST)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <>
Subject: Cryonics case in France

Court Told to Order Burial of Frozen Parents
Sat Mar 9,11:08 PM ET

SAUMUR, France (Reuters) - A French local authority asked a court on
Friday to order a man to bury his parents' corpses, which lie frozen
in a crypt at his family's chateau.

Remy Martinot's father, Raymond, froze his wife's body when she died
in 1984 aged 49, believing scientific developments would one day allow
her to be brought back to life.  He asked that the same be done with
his corpse when he died.

"I respected my father's last wishes," Martinot told the court.  "At
his death, at the end of February, he wished to be frozen close to her
(his wife), and that's what I did.  A man's last wish is a sacred thing."

Raymond Martinot, who died in February, was a doctor and biologist who
believed scientific developments would one day allow a body, preserved
at a constant temperature of -60 degrees Celsius, to be brought back
to life.

He wrote instructions on the wall of the crypt detailing the procedure
for resurrecting his wife, Monique, and also expressing his wish to be
frozen after his own death.

The crypt at the chateau in the village of Nueil-sur-Layon, near
Saumur in western France, became something of a tourist attraction,
with a travel agency obtaining exclusive rights for visits to the
crypt for four euros ($3.50) per person.

But after he froze his father's body next to his mother's, the
prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire region around Saumur asked Martinot
to bury their bodies, saying French law allows only the burial or
cremation of corpses.

Martinot has so far refused to bury the bodies.

The court's magistrates heard evidence from both sides, before
withdrawing to consider the case.  They will give their ruling on
March 13.
-- 
Keith F. Lynch -  - http://keithlynch.net/
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