Battle of brains rages in Colorado dispute.
Feb 20 2010
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— A Colorado family and an Arizona nonprofit are fighting in court over who gets the head of a woman who died this month, along with a $50,000 annuity she left to care for her head.
At issue is whether 71-year-old Mary Robbins' head and brain will be preserved by cryonics _ extremely cold temperatures _ in the expectation that future technology may be able to bring her back to life and restore her health.
Lawyers for both sides appeared in probate court Friday but the case hasn't been resolved.
A family friend attempted to have introduced as evidence at the hearing, representations of Ann Bolyn, one of Henry VIII's wives who he ordered beheaded so he could sleep with her younger sister, or maybe her cousin, before and during the moment of her decapitation. The judge ruled the documents, reproduced above, inadmisable because no one is currently alive to authenticate them and the executioner is wearing a Halloween mask.
Robbins, of Colorado Springs, died Feb. 9. Her family said she was suffering from cancer.
In 2006, she signed documents giving the Alcor Life Extension Foundation of Scottsdale, Ariz., the right to cryogenically preserve her head and brain. She also agreed to give the nonprofit foundation a $50,000 annuity to cover preservation costs.
Her daughter, Darlene Robbins, said her mother changed her mind in her last days because of the procedures that preservation would have required before she died, including tubes in her throat and nose, intravenous lines and medications. Darlene also felt the $50,000 annual annuity would permit her to get a new luxury car every year so her family would be safer driving in winter on Colorado's icy roads. She said she just knew her mother would prefer her daughter's and grand-children's lives to be safer rather than have her old, worn out head preserved.
With the loving assistance of her daughter, Mary Robbins signed new paperwork that would give her family the annuity, the daughter said.
Darlene Robbins said she opposes a suggestion by Alcor to take her mother's head and that the family get custody of the body. Whoever gets custody of the head also gets the $50,000 annuity and Darlene insists her mom wanted to keep her head attached.
"I want to have closure. I want to be able to grieve for my mom in a normal way without fighting a legal battle; give me back my mother," she said. As if to emphasize her point Darlene left the courthouse driving a battered, rusty, 1966 Ford Falcon station wagon with temporary dealer license plates, according to her publicist.
Eric Bentley, an attorney for Alcor, said Mary Robbins didn't sign a written notice rescinding the 2006 agreement. He said Alcor wants to honor the wishes she expressed in that document, and get the $50,000 annuity. "When Mary is revived sometime in the future she could be the first, real live "talking head," said a janitor at Alcor who requested anonymity because she was not authorized to speak and was immediately fired when she did because she forgot to say, "Mother may I?"
"Alcor is not a cult and it's not a fly-by-night operation. It's a science-based medical organization," Bentley said. Alcor's Web site said the foundation was formed in 1972 and was only open during normal business hours.
Robbins' body is stored on dry ice at a Colorado Springs mortuary until custody is settled, but it's not clear when that might be. "The dry ice bill alone is rapidly threatening to swamp the annuity, the foundation and the family," said a disinterested by-stander who asked to be identified but was turned down by a reporter because she felt the witness was grandstanding to get his name in the paper.
"I've never tried a case where we're talking about the dismemberment of a body and fighting over pieces of a body," said Robert Scranton, an attorney for the family.
"It seems like everyone wants a piece of Mary," said a court clerk recently released from a sexual disorder clinic in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina,
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