Most people would like to keep their heads. But don't count Thomas Donaldson among them. This mathematician and computer consultant wanted his cut off.  And he wanted it to be done while he was still alive. In one of the most bizarre court cases in history, Donaldson petitioned the State of California to allow him to be anesthetized and then be frozen solid with liquid nitrogen. He then wanted his head removed and placed in a stainless steel thermos bottle while the rest of his body was discarded.
Donaldson was not mad, not completely anyway. In the 1970s he had become interested in cryonics, the study of the behavior of matter at low temperatures. He had read about the potential of frozen tissues to be thawed out for future use and when he heard of a company that was looking for people to be frozen with hopes of future resuscitation, he jumped. Alcor was founded in the 1970s in California, where else, with hopes of enlisting people who would be flash frozen after death and stored in liquid nitrogen until technology evolved to the degree that not only could they be brought back to life, but whatever disease they died of, could be cured. In 1975 Donaldson signed up for the program. Unfortunately, thirteen years later he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. He concluded that if he waited to die, his brain would be so ravaged by the tumor that any hope of bringing him back to life at some future date would be lost. But if he were immediately frozen, the tumor would be stopped in its tracks.
Only his head needed to be kept, Donaldson maintained, because by the time he would be "reanimated" scientists would easily be able to clone the rest of his body from his cells. The only problem was that the authorities made it clear that any technician who took part in this weird experiment would be charged with murder. Hence Donaldsons's court petition to allow himself to be frozen. It was his constitutional right, he claimed, to determine when and how he would die. The court did not agree and neither did the California Superior court which denied the petition. So Donaldson grumbled and waited to die, which he did in 2006. His body was frozen and now is stored in a cryogenic container at Alcor. As far as we know his head is still attached. That’s unlike baseball great Ted Williams whose head sits in a neighbouring much smaller container...
