A 14-year-old girl with a rare form of cancer has won her battle to be cryogenically frozen.
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The unnamed girl from London, who was terminally ill, took legal action after making the decision that she wished to be preserved using the cryogenic technology. In order to do so, she asked a High Court judge to rule that her mother, who was supportive of her daughter’s wishes, should be the only person allowed to make decisions over the disposal of her body.
Mr Justice Peter Jackson made the ruling last month following an ongoing dispute between the girl’s divorced parents relating to whether her remains should be preserved. In the end, the mother and daughter won the case, and the teenager has now been taken to the US and frozen in the Michigan-based Cryogenics Institute. This makes her the first British resident to undergo this procedure.
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The Judge ruled that no one involved in the case should be identified, nor should any information be reported while the teenager was still alive, as he thought the media attention would distress her. He added that this one-of-a-kind case was not made hastily, and the girl had carried out vast research into cryonics during the last months of her life and that she definitely had the mental capacity to launch legal action.
Apparently, the dad had initially been against the case, and in his defence, I would say his concerns were valid. He was worried that even if she was brought back to life in the future, she might not have any living relatives and would be stranded alone in a different country. As a 14-year-old girl, I can’t think of anything worse. However, she was adamant that this is what she wanted, and of course the entire process ensures that if the preserved bodies are brought back to life, then they will be properly reintroduced to the world with the right support.
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This certainly does provide an example of new questions science poses to society. The fact that this is even an option now shows the fact-based hope that science has for the future and that in years to come we will be finding more sufficient ways to cure life-threatening illnesses.
That’s not the only good news we’ve got in store for us – we’ve also got science to thank for this incredible ‘exercise pill’. Finally, the pill we’ve all been waiting for.
