COLORADO SPRINGS — The frozen remains of a 71-year-old Colorado Springs woman will remain packed in dry ice for 72 hours while her family decides whether to appeal a magistrate’s decision to turn her body over to an Arizona non-profit for cryogenic preservation.
El Paso County Magistrate Barbara L. Hughes ruled today that Mary Robbins’ last will and testament directs that her body be turned over to the Alcor Life Extension Foundation of Scottsdale, AZ.
Her daughter Darlene Robbins of Pueblo had contested the will, stating that her mother changed her mind about cryogenics while suffering terrible pain from terminal cancer a few days before her Feb. 9 death.
Hughes granted a 72-hour stay of her ruling to allow Robbins to take the case to the Colorado Court of Appeals.
Part of the dispute involved a $50,000 annuity that Mary Robbins had set aside to cover the expenses of cryogenically preserving her head.
Alcor preserves human remains at very low temperatures on the assumption that future medical science will be able to revive the people who donate their bodies. Former Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams is among the people whose frozen remains are maintained by Alcor.
Read the rest of this report, including statements from both sides in the dispute, at .
