Publicity about a cryonics company that moved to Arizona a decade ago and preserves the remains of baseball legend Ted Williams has led to a bill calling for state oversight of the company’s facility in Scottsdale.

The bill, H2637, would put facilities that store human remains for more than five years under the jurisdiction of the state Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers. The only company it would affect is Alcor Life Extension Foundation, the only cryonics facility in Arizona.

The bill has 44 House sponsors, led by Rep. Bob Stump, R-9, and six sponsors in the Senate. It would require Alcor to be licensed by the funeral board, permitting the board to inspect the facility.

“This is the main reason for the bill,” Mr. Stump said. “Considering the serious allegations dating back to the mid-’80s, it will cast a much needed dose of sunshine on the cryonics industry.”

Rudy Thomas, director of the funeral board, said he wants to examine Alcor’s records and procedures, but added, “We won’t know [what we’ll find] until we get in there.”

For its part, Alcor objects to being put under the funeral board because it does not consider itself a funeral or embalming establishment. Instead, its representatives say, it is a scientific research organization studying whether a frozen body might someday be brought back to life, or “reanimated.” Alcor preserves bodies in liquid nitrogen. It does not confirm whose remains are there. The company moved to Scottsdale from Riverside, Calif., in 1994.

House action on H2637 awaits a recommendation from the House Health Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Deb Gullett, R-11, is a co-sponsor.

Alcor came to national attention in California over a coroner’s allegations about the handling of the remains of an 83-year-old woman who donated her body to the facility. The company was exonerated of wrongdoing, but another case involving the death of an AIDS victim, whose body is reportedly preserved at Alcor, still is under investigation in Los Angeles, according to a letter from the Los Angeles Police Department to a former Alcor employee.

But the biggest headlines about Alcor came after its move here, when a legal dispute erupted among Ted Williams’s children over whether the baseball star wanted his body cremated or donated to Alcor for cryonic suspension. It became a national story because of the prominence of Mr. Williams, who died July 2, 2002, in Florida at the age of 83.

The story was dialed up several notches when a fired Alcor COO said Alcor had mistakenly severed Williams’s head and a lawyer representing the COO said the operation was performed with a hammer and chisel.

Lobbyist Calls It Family Feud

Barry Aarons, lobbyist and spokesman for Alcor, says the controversy is mainly a feud within the Williams family. He said funeral board director Thomas is “openly hostile to cryopreservation.”

Mr. Thomas said he is indeed concerned, because, he said, if the story about the head is true, it could be criminal mutilation of a body. He said he has asked Scottsdale police to investigate.

A Williams son-in-law has asked for an investigation of Alcor by Attorney General Terry Goddard, whose office has given the press the standard response to questions: it will “neither confirm nor deny” an investigation.

The son-in-law, Mark Ferrell, said he hopes H2637 passes and shuts Alcor down.

Bill Provides Oversight, Sponsor Says

Rep. Stump, whose father owned a mortuary, said his intent is not to put Alcor out of business.

“As a conservative, I believe in government that is more evocative than prescriptive,” he said. “This bill provides oversight, with as light a touch as possible. Just as the medical board does not dictate the practice of medicine, the funeral board will not dictate the practice of cryonics.”

He said his bill does not require any new regulations for cryonics and that he feels the funeral board can regulate the Alcor facility with no additional staff or expense.

The board, he said, will ensure Alcor is “living up to their own standards.” —