Dora Kent

{{Infobox person

|birth_date = {{birth date|1904|5|1}}

|birth_place = New York, US

|death_date = {{death date and age|1987|12|11|1904|5|1}}

|death_place = Riverside, California, US

|known = legal controversy around cryonic suspension

}}

Dora Kent (May 1, 1904 – December 11, 1987) was the subject of a 1988 legal controversy about whether she had been murdered to facilitate her cryonic suspension. She was Alcor's eighth patient and the oldest at that time to ever be cryopreserved.{{cite book|title= Great Mambo Chicken And The Transhuman Condition: Science Slightly Over The Edge|last= Regis|first= Ed|author-link= Ed Regis (author)|year= 1991|publisher= Westview Press|isbn= 0-201-56751-2|page= [https://archive.org/details/greatmambochicke00regi/page/104 104]|url= https://archive.org/details/greatmambochicke00regi/page/104}} She was the mother of Saul Kent, a board member of Alcor. In her earlier years, Kent worked as a dressmaker in New York City.{{cite web |url=http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/deathcert.html |title=Death Certificate |publisher=State of California |website=Alcor.org |date=December 23, 1987 |access-date=10 June 2015 |author=Carillo, R.L. |archive-date=5 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305073608/http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/deathcert.html |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |url=http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1996-10-03/news/alcor-ya-in-the-morning-or-tomorrow-never-knows/2 |title=Alcor Ya in the Morning or Tomorrow Never Knows |access-date=2009-08-25 |last=Gilstrap |first=Peter |date=October 3, 1996 |publisher=Phoenix New Times |archive-date=2012-11-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103012649/http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1996-10-03/news/alcor-ya-in-the-morning-or-tomorrow-never-knows/2/ |url-status=dead }}

In December 1987, succumbing to Alzheimer's disease and pneumonia, Kent was brought by her son to the Alcor facility in Riverside, California, where she died. Alcor workers removed her head and stored it in a nitrogen-cooled Dewar flask. No physician was in attendance when she died.{{cite book|title= Great Mambo Chicken And The Transhuman Condition: Science Slightly Over The Edge|last= Regis|first= Ed|author-link= Ed Regis (author)|year= 1991|publisher= Westview Press|isbn= 0-201-56751-2|pages= [https://archive.org/details/greatmambochicke00regi/page/83 83–84]|url= https://archive.org/details/greatmambochicke00regi/page/83}}

The Riverside County coroner's office, led by Raymond Carrillo, autopsied Kent's headless body and determined the cause of death to be pneumonia. Later, the coroner said that the presence of certain metabolites in the body suggested that she was still alive at the time of preservation. Drugs, specifically barbiturates, were used as part of the cryonics process, and it was therefore difficult to tell whether a drug was administered before or after death. The coroner demanded the head for autopsy, along with all of Alcor's patient records and all its patients' bodies. When Alcor workers refused to produce the head or surrender other patients' bodies, several Alcor workers and volunteers, including Mike Darwin, were handcuffed and arrested, although none were charged.{{cite web|url=http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/DoraKentCase.html |title=Notes on the Dora Kent Crisis (Michael Perry's diary) |access-date=2008-06-13 |last=Perry |first=Michael |date=Sep–Nov 1992 |publisher=Alcor Life Extension Foundation }}

In a SWAT team raid a week later, most of Alcor's property was seized, although it was later returned. Deputy coroner Dan Cupido said that Alcor had better equipment than some medical facilities.{{cite book|title= Great Mambo Chicken And The Transhuman Condition: Science Slightly Over The Edge|last= Regis|first= Ed|author-link= Ed Regis (author)|year= 1991|publisher= Westview Press|isbn= 0-201-56751-2|page= [https://archive.org/details/greatmambochicke00regi/page/103 103]|url= https://archive.org/details/greatmambochicke00regi/page/103}} Alcor sued the county for false arrest and illegal seizure and won both suits,{{cite web

|url=http://www.cryonics.org/immortalist/november08/History.pdf

|last=Best

|first=Ben

|work=The Immortalist

|year=2008

|publisher=Immortality Institute

|access-date=2009-08-24

|title=A History of Cryonics

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130628112826/http://www.cryonics.org/immortalist/november08/History.pdf

|archive-date=2013-06-28

}} including a $90,000 settlement on behalf of the six workers who had been falsely arrested.{{cite news

| url = http://www.alcor.org/cryonics/cryonics2001-4.pdf

| last = Pizer

| first = Dave

| work = Cryonics

| year = 2001

| publisher = Alcor Life Extension Foundation

| access-date = 2009-08-26

| title = An Explanation of How the Mind is the Brain

| archive-date = 2011-06-07

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110607002404/http://www.alcor.org/cryonics/cryonics2001-4.pdf

| url-status = dead

}}

Ultimately, the court granted a restraining order against the coroner, protecting the head of Dora Kent and the other frozen human remains at Alcor from seizure, destruction or damage.{{cite web

| url = http://www.alcor.org/printable.cgi?fname=Library%2Fhtml%2Fneuropreservationoption.html

| last = Bridge

| first = Steve

| work = Cryonics

| year = 1995

| publisher = Alcor Life Extension Foundation

| access-date = 2009-08-25

| title = The Neuropreservation Option: Head First into the Future

| archive-date = 2012-02-18

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120218153737/http://www.alcor.org/printable.cgi?fname=Library%2Fhtml%2Fneuropreservationoption.html

| url-status = dead

}}

The case received much publicity over the ensuing years, which resulted in more interest in Alcor's services and sudden growth in the number of Alcor members.{{cite news|url=http://www.alcor.org/cryonics/cryonics8809.txt |title=Dr. Leary Joins Up... |access-date=2009-08-24 |last=Darwin |first=Mike |date=September 1988 |publisher=Alcor Life Extension Foundation }}