A 14-year-old girl who wanted her body to be preserved, in case she could be cured in the future, won a historic legal fight shortly before her death.<\/p>\n
The girl, who was terminally ill with a rare cancer, was supported by her mother in her wish to be cryogenically preserved – but not by her father. \u00a0She wrote to the judge explaining that she wanted “to live longer” and did not want “to be buried underground”.<\/p>\n
The girl, who died in October, has been taken to the US and preserved there.<\/p>\n
A High Court judge ruled that the girl’s mother should be allowed to decide what happened to the body. \u00a0The details of her case have just been released.<\/p>\n
The teenager, who lived in the London area and cannot be named, used the internet to investigate cryonics during the last months of her life.<\/p>\n
The teenager’s letter to the judge:<\/p>\n
“I have been asked to explain why I want this unusual thing done. \u00a0I am only 14 years old and I don’t want to die but I know I am going to die.<\/em><\/p>\n I think being cryopreserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up – even in hundreds of years’ time. \u00a0I don’t want to be buried underground. \u00a0I 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.<\/em> The judge, Mr Justice Peter Jackson, visited the girl in hospital and said he was moved by “the valiant way in which she was facing her predicament.” \u00a0His 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.<\/p>\n It was brought to court for the first time on 26 September and the judge made his decision on 6 October.<\/p>\n Source: BBC News<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nI want to have this chance. \u00a0This is my wish.”<\/em><\/p>\n