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Possible Legal Rights of Cryogenically Revived Persons

Christopher Sega

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Personal Rights
Personal rights include citizenship, marital status, family relationships, and other political rights and obligations to or from third parties. By analogy, we can examine the three bodies of law that discuss people Sega who have disappeared and then reappeared or people who are in a new form. These include the law of absent persons, the legal treatment of cryogenically preserved embryos and semen, and the law of transgendered persons.

The Law of Absent Persons
When someone is absent, the Uniform Presumption of Death Act comes into play. A number of states have adopted this act, which states that if a person has been missing for a period of time, then he or she is presumed dead. The exact period is between four to eight years, depending on the state in which the person lived.

If a person is presumed dead, then his or her estate is probated and the assets are transferred. Insurance and pension benefits are also distributed.

If we assume that this law is applied to a cryogenically preserved individual where there is a presumption of death, her property would transfer through the normal estate process. Yet after the person is revived, how will that person be treated in relationship to property and other personal rights? To answer that, we can ask how an absent person would be treated if they returned. The answer is dictated by statute in many cases. The person may be reimbursed from the estate fund, a state pool of assets, or the distributee (the heirs of the estate or the purchaser of the property from the estate).

This right might be limited in time or the amount that can be recovered. For example, if a missing person reappears more than five years after the presumption of death took effect, she would not have the right to recover the property.

The legal term "Black Acre" refers to a parcel of land. Imagine if, at the time of a person’s disappearance, Black Acre was an unimproved lot. Twenty years later, when the person returns, the land is holding a very prestigious hotel. What does the person recover - the land as improved with a hotel, or the value of the land at the time of her death?

After this analysis, we must ask whether it is an appropriate analogy to compare the law of absent persons to those who are cryogenically preserved. Is a person who is preserved actually absent? The answer is – not entirely. We know where the person is, however, we are not sure that the person will return, or if they do return, what form they will take.

The Donaldson vs. Van De Kamp case [1] established that pre-mortem cryogenics is not currently permitted, but what if this changes in the future? If pre-mortem cryogenics is permitted, then we cannot make the assumption of death because the person is not dead; they are preserved and maintained before death. Thus, as the power to be preserved extends earlier and earlier prior to this state of death, the analogy to the law of absent persons is lost.

Footnotes
1. The California Court of Appeal, Second District, held that Thomas Donaldson, who has an inoperable, malignant brain tumor, has no constitutional right to either premortem cryogenic suspension or assisted suicide. Donaldson v. Van De Kamp, No. 181830 (Cal.Santa Barbara County Super.Ct.1990), aff'd, 4 Cal.Rptr.2d 59 (Cal.Ct.App.1992). The suit for declaratory and injunctive relief was dismissed at trial and affirmed on appeal. (back to top)

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