Man Sues to Allow Freezing of Head Before He Dies

A mathematician with a brain tumor has sued the state in hopes of clearing the way to have his head scientifically frozen before he dies, his lawyer said Tuesday.

In a case that could expand a person’s power to decide how and when they die, Thomas Donaldson, 46, of Sunnyvale, wants his head cryonically suspended in the anticipation that scientists will discover a way to attach it to a healthy body and cure his brain disorder.

Cryonic suspension involves a controversial experimental procedure in which all or part of a person’s body is preserved at minus 320 degrees.

Up to now, the procedure has been performed only after a patient has died. Donaldson, however, wants to die before the tumor significantly damages his brain. His request, if carried out, would amount to suicide.

“I am dying and want to be cryonically suspended so that I might later be revived and continue to live,” said Donaldson, who is a member of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, a cryonics society based in Riverside County.

Although Donaldson said he believes he has a 40% chance of living until August, 1993, he decided to file the lawsuit now because “it will take a while for the courts to settle the matter.”

“Suits aren’t settled quickly like on “L.A. Law,” Donaldson said.

In the Jan. 4 episode of the NBC series, a woman dying of a brain tumor asked a judge to allow her to be cryonically suspended before she lost mental competence. The judge in that episode ruled that the woman had a constitutional right to be cryonically suspended before her natural death.

In California, a person is declared “legally dead” only after they stop showing signs of brain activity.

But in his lawsuit, filed Monday in Santa Barbara Superior Court, Donaldson is asking that the state be barred from stopping him from undergoing cryonic suspension before he is declared legally dead.