ADI Story: Cryonics Client Loses Her Head

Introduction: With the fourth issue of Air, Dirt & Ink the “news stories” were staying suspiciously close to the actual facts and becoming a bit more “Truth is stranger than Fiction” versus fictional send-ups of current events. Thus this Associated Press story needed to be shared in ADI about a Cryonics organization getting in legal trouble for possibly prematurely performing their preservation process on the 83-year-old mother of one of the organization’s founders. The late 1980s were a weird time indeed. Enjoy(?). 2024-03-04.

ADI Story: Cryonics Client Loses Her Head

January-February 1988 ADI Vol. 1, Issue 4. [The Associated Press, 01/08/88] Riverside, CA. Authorities trying to determine if an 83-year-old woman was dead when her head was removed and frozen for possible future revival questioned six people and searched a lab but failed to find the head.

“No one is saying where the head is being kept,” said Riverside County Deputy Coroner Mike Oare said today.

The coroner’s office launched an investigation of the Dec. 11 death of Dora Kent when officials learned her head was removed at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation lab without a doctor present to pronounce her dead. Alcor practices cryonics, the practice of freezing human remains in hopes medical technology will someday advance to the point they can be revived.

The six people arrested, including the president of Alcor, were questioned at the Riverside police station Thursday and later released, said Dan Cupido, a supervising deputy coroner. Alcor officials refused to disclose where the head was being stored, said Scott Hill, chief deputy coroner.

**Alcor & Futuroscope Mugs by Anders Sandberg (2007-10-13), https://flic.kr/p/3o5wyX**

The coroner’s deputies seized documents, videotapes, charts and slides during the search.

Cupido said it appeared the people at the cryonics facility were packing files for shipment. “So there is some suspicion they were getting ready to move,” he said.

The woman’s son, Saul Kent, 48, a member of Alcor, has said he chose to have her head frozen because she had severe arthritis and he hoped the rest of her body could be replaced someday.

Mrs. Kent was terminally ill, suffering from a degenerative brain disease, and an autopsy determined she had pneumonia when she died. The question is whether the woman was clinically dead when her head was removed.

Alcor reportedly has frozen several heads and one full body at the facility. Alcor’s attorney, Christopher Leanders, said media attention and official panic prompted Thursday’s search. “I think it’s been poorly handled, they jumped the gun,” he said of Thursday’s search.

Authorities reported finding building and zoning violations involved with the freezing operation that uses liquid nitrogen, and with procedures for disposing of body fluids.

Alcor failed to file for permits needed to use the liquid nitrogen and other operations, said Cicilia Lawson, a Riverside zoning inspector.

A cache of weapons and explosives, including hand grenades, was found at the site Cupido said. [ADI]

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