"The siblings of a man who died more than a year ago must exhume his body so his head can be cut off and cryogenically frozen, the Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled":

The court sided this week with Alcor Life Extension Foundation, which sought to dig up the remains of 81-year-old Orville Richardson of Burlington. Richardson had signed a contract with Alcor in 2004 and paid $53,500 to have his head placed in cryonic suspension after his death.

When he died in February 2009, Richardson's brother and sister buried him instead, having told him earlier that they would have nothing to do with his plan, court records show.

Rand Simberg comments:

Yes, it's pointless, as far as that patient went (as far as I'm concerned, his family murdered him), but Alcor had to do this, to ensure their other customers that it would do whatever was necessary to fight for them, and fulfill its contractual responsibilities.