A British teenager who died of cancer has been cryogenically frozen in the United States after winning a court battle before her death.
The 14-year-old — who has not been identified for legal reasons and is referred to only as “JS” — suffered from a rare form of cancer and wanted to be frozen in hopes that one day technology will be able to cure her disease and bring her back to life, the Associated Press reports.
“I have been asked to explain why I want this unusual thing done,” she wrote in the judgment obtained by CNN. "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.”
She continued, “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.”
The court battle ensued because the girl’s parents are divorced, and while her mother supported her wish, her estranged father did not, according to CNN. JS’ dad, who also has cancer, wrote, “Even if the treatment is successful and [JS] is brought back to life in let’s say 200 years, she may not find any relative and she might not remember things and she may be left in a desperate situation given that she is only 14 years old and will be in the United States of America.” He softened his stance as his daughter’s condition worsened, the AP reports.
The judge ruled that the mother had the authority to make her daughter’s posthumous arrangements, which essentially meant the girl would be sent to a cryonics facility. The judge said the procedure was about $46,000, and the girl’s maternal grandparents were taking care of the cost, CNN reports.
JS received the ruling on October 6, just 11 days before her death on October 17. The judge imposed restrictions on any media coverage while the teen was alive to respect her privacy.
Her body has since been flown to the Cryonics Institute in Clinton Township, Michigan. A statement on the nonprofit’s website says, “The patient arrived at the CI facility, packed in dry ice, at 5:00 p.m. on the 25th of October, approximately eight days after death. The patient was then placed in the computer controlled cooling chamber to cool to liquid nitrogen temperature. … The patient was then placed in cryostat for long-term cryonic storage."
Cryonics is the practice of preserving people in extremely cold temperatures so that the body does not decay. It can only be performed on legally dead people, and there is currently no way to resuscitate the bodies that have been frozen. While the technology is still limited and many are skeptical of the process, some people have chosen to undergo cryonics in the hopes that one day scientists will find a way to revive them.
