A girl of 14 has been granted her dying wish – to be cryogenically frozen.
The ‘bright, intelligent’ girl from London was diagnosed with cancer in August 2015, and died last month after running out of treatment options.
Desperate for another shot at life, the teenager requested that she by frozen so that one day in the future she might be cured and woken back up.
Whilst terminally ill, she launched a High Court bid to have the $70,000 procedure, despite fierce opposition from her own father.
Judge Mr Justice Peter Jackson ruled that her mother, who approved of her wishes, should be allowed to decide the fate of her body.
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The teenager is currently suspended in freezing nitrogen at a cryogenic centre in the US, where she is referred to as ‘Patient 143.’
And despite ruling against him, the judge said he sympathised with the girl’s father – who objected to the procedures that would be carried out by ‘cryonics’ – who have no formal medical training.
While it is unclear exactly what procedures are performed, practitioners are known to cover the head with bags of ice to chill the brain. They then drain the blood from the body and replace it with antifreeze.
The judge said details of what happens to the body before freezing were “disturbing.”
There’s plenty of criticism of cryogenics. With one such critic, Martin Ingvar, a cognitive neuroscientist, accusing the practitioners of being crooks.
“When you look at the brain, with 100 billion cells and 10,000 links between these and other cells… there’s no way in hell you can restore the function in that,” he said.
In a note expressing her wishes, the teenage girl in question said she did not want to be “buried underground,” and wanted a chance at a life.
“I don’t want to die but I know I will die,” she wrote.
