A 14-year-old girl has become the first person from the UK to be Cryogenically frozen after winning a case at the high court. The girl suffered from cancer and she asked that her body be frozen in case a cure comes about in the future. Her parents were divided on the issue, her father didn’t agree as she would wake up, in America, alone and with no family. While that is a possibility, her mum and her grandparents helped to fund the procedure.
Cryonics is described as a “visionary concept that holds out the promise of a second chance at life – with a renewed health, vitality and youth”. The process involves cooling a recently deceased person to the temperature of liquid nitrogen to keep the body preserved indefinitely. The idea being that eventually, science will develop a way to revive the person and restore them back to health.
I’ve always thought of the procedure as some myth in a faraway place, seeing all the news stories with footage of the institute could be straight out of a sci-fi film. Now that someone in the UK has gone through with it, will there be rise in people asking to be frozen? The father’s concerns of the environment she could wake up in are valid, you are literally entering the unknown.
The judge ruled that this was what was best for the girl after receiving this heart-breaking letter: 'I have been asked to explain why I want this unusual thing done. 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. This is my wish.'
After her life being cut so short, it’s easy to see why she’s explored this option. As a result, The Human Tissue Authority have started to gather information on cryopreservation to determine how widespread it can be in the future, what risks it involves and how it can be regulated. As there are no facilities available in the UK at present, volunteer enthusiasts assisted with the preservation and she was transported to a facility in America.
It is a controversial subject in that not many people agree or want to be frozen. Paris Hilton and Simon Cowell are among the celebrities who have voiced they would like to be. Who knows, in 10 years this may be common practice. Would you like to be preserved for a chance at a second life?
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.