Teen won right to be cryogenically frozen in landmark case
- 8 years ago
A 14-year-old girl who died of cancer has become the first British girl to be cryogenically frozen in the hopes of being brought back to life in future.
The High Court judge ruled that the girl’s mother could decide what happened to the body. When she died in October her body was transported from London to the US where it was cryogenically frozen by a commercial company.
The court heard that her dying wish was to be preserved so that she might be revived ‘even in hundreds of years’ time’. In a letter the teenager explained:
“I’m only 14 years old and I don’t want to die, but I know I am going to. I think being cryo-preserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up, even in hundreds of years’ time.
“I don’t want to be buried underground. I want to live and live longer and I think that in the future they might find a cure for my cancer and wake me up. I want to have this chance.”
What is cryopreservation?
It is the technique of preserving human tissues by cooling to a very low temperature (from -80 °C using solid carbon dioxide or -196 °C using liquid nitrogen). Someone whose body has been treated in this way is known to be in ‘cryonic suspension’.
The deep-freezing technique developed in the 1960s, has been used by people who have died of incurable diseases to be revived in the hope of a future cure.
#newsgraphic Cryonics: an experimental process of preserving a body for possible future medical breakthroughs AFP pic.twitter.com/Df98Y7a5jB— AFPgraphics (AFPgraphics) 18. November 2016
The High Court judge ruled that the girl’s mother could decide what happened to the body. When she died in October her body was transported from London to the US where it was cryogenically frozen by a commercial company.
The court heard that her dying wish was to be preserved so that she might be revived ‘even in hundreds of years’ time’. In a letter the teenager explained:
“I’m only 14 years old and I don’t want to die, but I know I am going to. I think being cryo-preserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up, even in hundreds of years’ time.
“I don’t want to be buried underground. I want to live and live longer and I think that in the future they might find a cure for my cancer and wake me up. I want to have this chance.”
What is cryopreservation?
It is the technique of preserving human tissues by cooling to a very low temperature (from -80 °C using solid carbon dioxide or -196 °C using liquid nitrogen). Someone whose body has been treated in this way is known to be in ‘cryonic suspension’.
The deep-freezing technique developed in the 1960s, has been used by people who have died of incurable diseases to be revived in the hope of a future cure.
#newsgraphic Cryonics: an experimental process of preserving a body for possible future medical breakthroughs AFP pic.twitter.com/Df98Y7a5jB— AFPgraphics (AFPgraphics) 18. November 2016