American Notes CALIFORNIA

Mathematician Thomas Donaldson, 46, of Sunnyvale, Calif., believes that science will eventually make immortality possible, and he wants in on it. Last week he asked a state court judge to permit a seven-person team to freeze him, then sever his frozen head and store it. Someday, he figures, science will provide a cure for the cancer that afflicts him. Then, if doctors can master the art of brain transplantation, Donaldson's noggin could be thawed out and his brain implanted in another body. At $35,000, freezing a head is a good deal cheaper than the $100,000 it costs to suspend an entire body.

If Donaldson's suit succeeds in barring interference by California officials, he could become the first living person to undergo the cryonic suspension process. "I am dying," says Donaldson, whose tumor has not responded to therapy. "I might later be revived and continue to live." Donaldson's lawyer thinks a judgment might come by the end of 1990.