To his own reluctance, Takeshi goes along with the whole process (for now) and follows a young detective known as Kristin Ortega. Once he finds himself outside, in full scope of the dystopian cityscape he now lives in, a protest is already underway. A coalition of both the religious and spiritual have formed a picket protest in opposition to the government's program that allows newly-revived people to become somebody else's personal property.

I won't spoil either the film or book, but I believe the question, "Do the dead have rights?," is a fascinating one considering that we're moving in a direction that is quite similar. More and more people are having themselves cryogenically frozen via a service known as cryonics (full disclosure: I am one of those people). The reason for this is in the hopes that, once they pass away and then frozen, sometime in the future they'll be revived and live life anew.

Which then raises the question: will they have any rights once revived or will they be obligated, in some way, to serve the company that gave them back their life?

There are a lot of interesting legal realities within the world of cryonics. The most interesting legal aspect, in my opinion, is the fact that, once you die and under the care of the cryonics facility, your deceased body is now technically owned by the company. This comes as a result of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA). As explained by one of the cryonics companies, Alcor:

"Another advantage to the "dead" label for suspension patients is that it allows Alcor and other cryonics companies to use the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA) to obtain legal custody of the patients' "human remains." Just as individuals are allowed to donate their bodies after death to medical schools or their organs for transplant, they can also donate their bodies to Alcor for "medical research." When accomplished by a written pre-mortem declaration, this donation effectively removes the ability of family members to "dispose" of the individual in some other way."

Despite personally being a supporter of Alcor and its services, after having watched the first episode of Altered Carbon, I find myself wondering how this particular legal matter would be addressed in the event that one of those "patients" is successfully revived. Will they no longer be the property of Alcor? Would they even be considered "alive," and thus beholden to their rights as a living person?

For now, these questions are purely hypothetical since nobody that's been cryogenically suspended so far have been revived. But once they are, these questions will need answers, if none have yet to be given.

What are your thoughts?