Knowing she had only weeks to live rather than her whole life ahead of her, a dying schoolgirl desperately turned to cryogenics in the hope she could one day be brought back.
Described as a “bright, intelligent young person”, the tragic 14-year-old spent her last months fervently researching how she could be frozen until a cure is found for her rare form of cancer in the future.
But as she ran out of time, her divorced parents were locked in a bitter battle about what to do with her remains. Too young to make a will, the teenager went to court to protect her dying wish.
In a heartbreaking letter to the judge, she said that while she did not want to die, she had accepted her fate. She wrote: “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.”
After a battle in the High Court, her wish came true and she made British legal history. Details of the case can only be revealed now after the youngster passed away last month. Her remains have already been shipped to the US for storage.
Presiding judge Mr. Justice Peter Jackson said: “She died peacefully in the knowledge her body would be preserved in the way she wished.”The mother, who lived with her child in London, supported her. But her father, whom she had not seen for eight years and did not want any contact with, was against the move. He said he was worried about his daughter potentially being revived as a 14-year-old, in America in the distant future.
The father said: “Even if the treatment is successful and she is brought back to life in, let’s say, 200 years, she may not find any relative and she might not remember things.
“She may be left in a desperate situation – given that she is still only 14 years old – and will be in the United States of America.” But he eventually backed down, telling the court: “I respect the decisions she is making. This is the last and only thing she has asked from me.”