All about Scientology's "Lisa McPherson Clause" here:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Scientology/ReleaseForms/Introspection.html
Scientology Moving to Secure Its 'Right' to Kill Again
(Welcome to LisaClause.org -- for latest updates click here)
Lisa clause or Lisa McPherson clause: an adhesion clause to insulate one party from all damages, including personal injury or death, from known and unknown conduct of commission or omission of the party so released. An "adhesion clause" is a recognized legal term which means "take it or leave it", i.e., that the party signing the agreement has no bargaining power and therefore no alternative but to include the clause in the agreement.
A new Scientology release form has surfaced that gives the cult the right to hold its members in isolation indefinitely, and absolves it of any responsibility for a member's injury or death as a result -- the "Lisa McPherson clause". (Thanks to Scientology PR spokesperson Linda Simmons Hight for confirming the document's authenticity to Fox News.)
* Scientology killed Lisa McPherson in Clearwater, Florida, on December 5, 1995. She was held against her will for 17 days, denied medical care, and forcibly sedated. When her guards tried to force her to undergo the Introspection Rundown and she refused, she was kept in an isolation lock-down until she died from severe dehydration. Forensic entomologists later identified 110 cockroach feeding sites on her body, and three nationally prominent forensic pathologists opined that the manner of death was "homicide". (The pathologists were Calvin Bandt, M.D. (affidavit), Werner Spitz, M.D. (affidavit), and John Coe, M.D.)
* In 1997, Lisa's estate filed a wrongful death suit against the Church of Scientology. That trial has been postponed six times by Scientology's legal maneuvering, but is now expected to take place in 2004.
* Before and after the wrongful death case was filed by Lisa's family, attorneys for Scientology insisted to state prosecutors -- and on national television -- that there was no religious service involved in Lisa's treatment; she was simply a guest at the Fort Harrison Hotel ("Flag") enjoying "rest and relaxation." Similar statements were made to the St. Petersburg Times. But after initially lying about it to police investigators, Flag Senior Case Supervisor Alain Kartuzinski later admitted that he had written a program for the Introspection Rundown for Lisa and placed it in its proper location in her confidential PC (preclear) folders (see below). It can't be found.
* From a 1998 interview with Michael Rinder (head of Scientology's intelligence and dirty tricks squad, the Office of Special Affairs) on the CBS television program Public Eye:
JEANNETTE-MEYERS: Rest and relaxation sounds like a wonderful idea. But the records say that two days into her stay she was spitting out food and vomiting, four days into her stay she was ashen faced and feverish, and then she became violent, striking the attendants, hallucinating, thinking that she's L. Ron Hubbard, being too weak to stand, soiling herself, crying, babbling, breaking things. At that point, isn't it clear that it's not working?
RINDER: What's not working?
* The state of Florida brought criminal charges against the Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization in 1998 for its treatment of Lisa McPherson. The case was eventually dropped after a sudden and suspicious change of opinion by the medical examiner, Joan Wood, as to the cause of Lisa's death. (This occurred after Scientology spent months harassing Wood.) Prior to the dropping of charges, Scientology filed a Motion to Dismiss the criminal charges in which it asserted that "The Introspection Rundown itself is an entirely religious process." And, in an amicus brief filed by Michael Rinder and an unnamed collection of "executives of the Churches of Scientology throughout the world", the organization complained that:
"... this prosecution attempts to place us in fear of the consequences of the very practice of our religion. In the face of these charges, can we be sure that providing any of our religious services to the members of our faith will not result in prosecution because some zealot in a government agency disagrees with our beliefs? Can any of us be sure that if one of our parishioners in the future needs an Introspection Rundown, it will not result in our Church being charged? The answer is, of course, no. And that is an intolerable result."
* In 2000, Professor Stephen Kent of the University of Alberta, an expert on the sociology of religion, and Scientology in particular, submitted an affidavit in the wrongful death suit in which he stated that:
"Seen in historical context, the Introspection Rundown is the culmination of pseudo-psychiatric and pseudo-medical therapies that dates back to the founding of Dianetics and runs through Scientology up to the present day. Nothing about the Introspection Rundown is religious. Hubbard's stated secular intention was to eliminate psychiatry, and Lisa McPherson fell victim to an organization, Scientology's Flag Service Org, whose members were following Scientology policy."
* In the summer of 2002, during an attempt to disqualify attorney Kennan G. Dandar as counsel for the estate, Scientology again argued that it had the legal right to hold Lisa McPherson against her will and deny her access to medical care and contact with her friends and family, because she was a parishioner, and Lisa's treatment was a "religious practice". Judge Susan Schaeffer was not convinced.
* Now this new document has surfaced: a release form for the Introspection Rundown. Parishioners seeking services at Flag -- the place Scientology advertises as the "Mecca of Technical Perfection" -- must sign a contract promising not to sue if they are harmed. And they are not given a copy to take home with them. A scanned copy of this new form is reproduced below; the HTML version is available here. Some choice quotes:
If circumstances should ever arise in which government, medical or psychiatric officials or personnel or family members or friends attempt to compel or coerce or commit me for psychiatric evaluation, treatment or hospitalization, I fully desire and expect that the Church or Scientologists will intercede on my behalf to oppose such efforts and/or extricate me from that predicament...
I understand that the Introspection Rundown ... includes being isolated from ... family members, friends or others with whom I might normally interact.... The Case Supervisor will determine the time period in which I will remain isolated, according to the beliefs and practices of the Scientology religion. I further specifically acknowledge that the duration of any such isolation is uncertain, determined only by my spiritual condition, but that such duration will be completely at the discretion of the Case Supervisor.
I accept and assume all known and unknown risks of injury, loss, or damage resulting from my decision to participate in the Introspection Rundown and specifically absolve all persons and entities from all liabilities of any kind, without limitation, associated with my participation or their participation in my Introspection Rundown."
WOULD YOU SIGN AWAY YOUR PERSONAL RIGHTS LIKE THAT? WOULD YOU WANT A LOVED ONE TO DO SO?
Go to the above website to SEE IT ALL!