For the first time in the UK, a terminally ill British teenager suffering from a rare cancer has won a historic legal battle shortly before her death, to have her body preserved until a cure can be found in future, it emerged today.
The girl, whose parents are divorced and she lived with her mother in London, was supported by her mother in her wish to be cryogenically preserved but not by her father.
She wrote to the judge explaining that she wanted "to live longer" and did not want "to be buried underground".
The 14-year-old, who died in October, was taken to the US and preserved there.
A High Court judge ruled that the girl's mother should be allowed to decide what happened to the body.
The details of her case have just been released.
The teenager, who lived in the London area and cannot be named and is only known as JS, used the internet to investigate cryonics during the last months of her life.
"I have been asked to explain why I want this unusual thing done. I am only 14 years old and I don't want to die but I know I am going to die. I think being cryopreserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up - even in hundreds of years' time," she wrote in her moving plea to the judge.
"I don't want to be buried underground. I want to live and live longer and I think that in the future they may find a cure for my cancer and wake me up. I want to have this chance. This is my wish," she said.
Justice Peter Jackson, visited the girl in hospital and said he was moved by "the valiant way in which she was facing her predicament".
He said: "The scientific theory underlying cryonics is speculative and controversial, and there is considerable debate about its ethical implications."
"On the other hand, cryopreservation, the preservation of cells and tissues by freezing, is now a well-known process in certain branches of medicine, for example the preservation of sperm and embryos as part of fertility treatment. Cryonics is cryopreservation taken to its extreme," he said.
The ruling, he said, was not about the rights or wrongs of cryonics but about a dispute between parents over the disposal of their daughter's body.
It was brought to court for the first time on 26 September and the judge made his decision on October 6.
The case can finally be reported because Justice Jackson ruled that nothing could be published until one month after JS' death.
He also ruled that her parents' names and other specific details should remain secret.
The UK's Department of Health said: "Cases such as this are rare. Although there are no current plans for legislative change in this area, this is an area we will continue to keep under review with the Human Tissue Authority.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
