Normally stealthy, the Detroit-based Cryonics Institute was in the news world-wide last month. A controversy regarding the remains of a London teenager crossed international lines in a dispute that combined high-profile custody litigation with the cryopreservation debate.

The teenager, unidentified because of her age, suffered terminal cancer and expressed her wishes to be cryonically preserved after her death. She hoped that a cure would someday be discovered for her cancer. Her divorced parents were unable to agree on the process and the matter was resolved in the family division of the British High Court.

So long as the custody dispute raged-on between the teenager's parents, the child's preference regarding cryonic preservation was also a contested issue. Finally, when her cancer became terminal, the child's preference was honored by both of her parents.

Cryopreservation on this scale is not supported by the mainstream scientific community. While scientific advances have perfected the cryogenic preservation of human embryos, there is no evidence that the technology is viable for a human body.

Despite the lack of scientific basis, the Cryonics Institute has 145 human "patients" as well as 125 "pet patients". The cost of freezing starts at $28,000 for humans and $5,800 or more for pets.

Stanford University law professor and bioethicist Hank Greely is not comfortable with the sales pitch of bringing a frozen person back to life. "If you think about this as a health intervention, I think it's ethically problematic," Greely stated. He added that the ethical dilemma could be lessened by treating the process as an alternative to the traditional preservation practice of embalming.

Cryopreservation is not the only example of the pseudoscience of cryonics duping consumers to part with a chunk of cash. Beginning in the 1970s, and finally becoming popular in the US over the last several years, cryotherapy is a controversial procedure that involves standing in a chamber filled with nitrogen gas chilled to between -319 and -166 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cryotherapy reached Michigan in 2015, with a whole-body cryotherapy treatment center opening in Birmingham last year. With its proponents touting benefits that include increased athletic performance, weight loss, speeding up surgical recovery, improving skin conditions, and even treating rheumatoid arthritis, it is hard to not take a closer look at these impressive, although unsubstantiated claims.

Alas, there is no mainstream medical support for cryotherapy. A recent scholarly review of scientific studies was unable to find any data that supported whole-body cryotherapy over more traditional methods such as cold water immersion or ice packs.

The 2015 death of ChelseaAke-Salvacion increased the scrutiny of this controversial spa procedure.  Ms. Salvacion did not freeze to death, but asphyxiated due to the lack of oxygen in the air during her cryotherapy session.

There is no scientific evidence that exposing the human body to extreme sub-zero temperatures has any likelihood of preserving the body in a state of suspended animation, waiting for technology to catch up with the forward thinking Cryonics Institute members. The custody case of the UK teenager further complicates the ethical considerations of this dubious proceedure.

Likewise, there is no evidence that cryotherapy is any more effective than sitting in a bathtub full of ice water. Nevertheless, people continue to be fascinated by the mysteries of the sub-zero and they continue to be willing to pay to satisfy this fascination.

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Post #570

Judges Foley & Drazewski

Lawyers and laypersons alike look to judges to make proper decisions. To err, however, is human.

Judges are people too, albeit bestowed with authority; therefore, they are imperfect, right along with the rest of humanity. Imbued therefore, with imperfect authority.

A truly one-of-its-kind case hammering that point home comes to us from McLean County, Illinois; two hours to the Southwest of Chicago. Circuit Judges Rebecca Foley and Scott Drazewski provided testimony this week to a panel of the Illinois Courts Commission in Chicago regarding their mutually adulterous affair; an affair that ended both of their respective marriages in divorce.

Of course, all of this is old news for the folks in McLean County; even perhaps for most Illinoisans. The interesting and significant component of last month's hearing was the testimony of the judges, both asserting, through lawyers, that their admitted mutually adulterous affair violated no specific rule of judicial ethics.

Really? That one is a stretch for us over here at the Law Blogger, knowing as we do the choppy seas of the mutually adulterous affair. The case also involves a component where Judge Drazewski presided over a trial involving Judge Foley's attorney-husband.

Not only do such affairs put a bullet into two marriages; the adulterous lovers, upon being freed from the bonds of matrimony through the divorce process -again, in this case, a high-profile proceeding- usually, eventually, cool toward one another, and split-up.

In this case, however, the two judges plan to wed. Does their claim of "true love" now provide a hall-pass for their silence, concealment, and deception relative to their long-rumored affair. Extensive proofs -yes, there were text messages- have been submitted and the Commission is expected to issue an opinion in 6-weeks.

As practicing trial lawyers, we are most troubled by Judge Drazewski's legalistic argument that no judicial ethics violation occurred regarding the specific case of Judge Foley's lawyer-husband, who litigated a trial before Judge Drazewski while the lid blew-off the judge's affair with his wife.

We here at this blog see an inherent conflict whenever a trial lawyer is cuckolded by the judge presiding over his case. Every ruling  -procedural, evidentiary, dispositive- would be, with good reason should be, second-guessed. Thus, why ever conduct such a trial?

In February 2011, the husband blew-up the situation after witnessing his wife, Judge Foley, kissing Drazewski. The judge refused to recuse himself from Foley's cases and argued to the Commission that unless Foley could demonstrate actual bias by Judge Drazewski that would alter the case outcome, he was not required to step-off the case.

Will the Commission be persuaded by the judges' argument? Will the judicial couple survive if they are forced-off the bench in righteous disgrace over their affair?

Even if they retain their seats on the bench through a favorable decision from the Commission, we wonder if the voters will be as understanding about these two judicial love birds.

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Post #506

Attorney Henry Baskin

Technically, the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct do not expressly proscribe a lawyer from having sexual relations with a client.  The lack of a specific ethics provision, however, did not prevent the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission from issuing a reprimand and assessing costs against well-known Birmingham attorney, Henry Baskin, for allegedly conducting a long-term physical relationship with a female divorce client.

We here at the Law Blogger know Henry, having worked with him on a few matters over the years.  So we are compelled to ask, Henry...Henry...of all the women you could persuade to, er, date you, why select a client; and a divorce client to boot?

The Attorney Discipline Board [a panel of lawyers assigned to decide Henry's case] had this to say in disposing of this matter:

Although there is no evidence of actual injury to the client, the potential injury under these circumstances is clear to any lawyer, and certainly to someone with [Baskin's] experience.

Never one to shirk the white-hot spotlight, Henry has publicly commented that he disagreed with the decision, and thought the matter should have been resolved privately long-ago; the relationship apparently was conducted from 1999 through 2004.  Henry also noted with some apparent pride, that his client was well-served in the divorce to the extent she received a record-breaking alimony award.

Perhaps this ruling will have some interesting future implications.  For example, what if the lawyer has a long-standing committed and pre-existing relationship with the client, say in a probate or commercial matter?  Obviously divorce clients are always going to be "taboo".  Or what if a lawyer represents his spouse?

The Attorney Grievance Commission always takes the unique facts and circumstances of a particular case into account.  We have to agree with this one.  Of all the people a divorce lawyer may elect to date, it just should not be from among the corps of that lawyers clientele.

So folks, beware of the horny divorce attorney!  Caveat emptor on that one for sure...

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