Michael Friedman

Michael Louis Friedman (c. 1954^[1] – legal death June 1, 1992) was an American lawyer who became a member of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation (A-1171) in 1987.

On May 31, 1992 he had a discussion with David Pizer about the possibility of filing suit to avoid an autopsy for a murdered cryonicist, so the victim would have the right to be preserved quickly and without the damage an autopsy would cause.^[2] The next day, Friedman was shot at least four times in the head with a pistol by a former client, 62-year-old James Sinclair.^[1] Then Sinclair committed suicide by shooting himself.^[2]

Friedman was subject to autopsy. Alcor was able to negotiate with the coroner to conduct the autopsy quickly and to refrain from sectioning the brain. The coroner removed the brain from the skull and made some cuts, but it was mostly intact. Friedman was preserved 26 hours after legal death and his brain was stored separately from his body since his brain had been removed.^[2]