Autopsy will resume on man who wants freezing
TAMPA (AP) – The nation’s leading cryogenics organization lost its bid Thursday to prevent an autopsy on a 48-year-old man who wanted his body frozen until he could be brought back to life.
Hillsborough Circuit Judge Martha J. Cook told the county medical examiner to resume the autopsy on Michael Ned Miller, which was interrupted shortly after it began by a call from Alcor Life Extension Foundation Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz. Cook denied Alcor’s request for a stay pending an appeal of her order.
“The court will not interfere with (the medical examiner’s) duty,” Cook said.
After the hearing and a hurried round of negotiations, Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Vernard Adams told Health News Florida that he will keep the cuts to an absolute minimum out of “kindness” to the family.
“I don’t see any sense in it being a hard process,” he said. For example, he said would cut open the skull but will scan the brain rather than cut into it for tissue samples.
Alcor had brought a rabbi to testify, because Miller was Jewish, but the judge took no testimony. She said the law giving medical examiners the right to override private preferences about autopsies is clear.
Miller was found dead by his sister in his north Tampa apartment on Dec. 3, 10 days after a leg surgery. Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Vernard Adams told Health News Florida that he began conducting an autopsy because Miller “had a history of prescription drug abuse, and I am concerned that he (may have) died of an accidental drug overdose.”