<

Frozen Couple Sparks Heated Debate
Tuesday, 26 February, 2002
(17:42 GMT)
The BBC

Cryonicists often head for the U.S. to avoid European legislation.
Photo Credit: The BBC.

The pair had wanted to keep her in a glass-topped freezer in the cellar. Many European countries have legislation in place restricting the preservation of dead bodies in such a way.

A French couple who were frozen when they died in the hope that medical advances would one day revive them are facing a thaw at the hands of local authorities.

Officials are investigating whether the bodies of Dr Raymond Martinot and his wife Monique should be removed from their special refrigerated location in Neuil-sur-Layon, western France, and disposed of in a more traditional fashion.

Dr Martinot became a much feted name in the world of cryonics -- the freezing of dead people for potential revival in the future -- when he froze his wife after she died of cancer in 1984.

The 80-year-old was then placed in the same refrigerator by his son when he himself died last Friday, drawing fresh attention from the authorities to the issue.

"What has been done is outlawed in France," a prosecutor told BBC News Online. "In this country, bodies must either be cremated or buried."

* Chilling
* Expensive freeze
(More: BBC News Online News Source)
2002 © The British Broadcasting Corporation.

Dan