X-Message-Number: 896
From: 
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

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