Bodies in these tanks are cooled to -140C with liquid nitrogen Murray Ballard

A terminally ill 14-year-old girl who wanted her body to be frozen in the hope that she could be brought back to life won a historic legal fight shortly before dying.

Her divorced parents had become embroiled in a dispute relating to whether her remains should be taken to a specialist facility in the United States and cryogenically preserved.

The girl, who lived in the London area with her mother and had a rare form of cancer, had taken legal action.


She had asked a High Court judge to rule that her mother – who supported her wish to be cryogenically preserved – should be the only person allowed to make decisions about the disposal of her body.

Mr Justice Peter Jackson had made the ruling she wanted in October – following a private hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London – and lawyers say her remains have now been taken to the USA and frozen.

The judge had said that nothing about the case could be reported while the teenager was alive, after she said media coverage would distress her.

The teenager had been represented by lawyers and had written to the judge explaining that she wanted a chance to “live longer”. said he had been moved by the “valiant way” in which she had faced her “predicament”.

The judge said the girl’s application was the only one of its kind to have come before a court in England and Wales – and probably anywhere else. And he added that the case was an example of the new questions that science posed to lawyers.

Read more: Everything you need to know about cryogenically freezing bodies

The judge said the teenager had carried out internet research into cryonics during the last months of her life and that there was no doubt that she had the mental capacity to launch legal action.

But her father had been reluctant to approve the plan. He had been concerned about consequences of his daughter being cryogenically preserved, and had been concerned about the costs involved.

“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,” he had told Mr Justice Jackson.

“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.”

Read more: A visual tour of the weird world of the cryogenically frozen

The freezing process was carried out “quite swiftly” after the teenager’s death, said the girl’s solicitor, Zoe Fleetwood.

She added: “It was a difficult process. Some might say the girl’s mother’s attention was directed towards that procedure rather than grieving at that time.

“But her daughter had passed away. The procedure needed to be carried out. One can’t imagine what this parent was going through at this time from the loss of her daughter. But parents’ attention can be directed elsewhere with various arrangements after a person’s death.”

Read more: 9 things you need to know about cryogenically freezing your body

The case did not create a precedent with regard to the right to be frozen in the hope of future reawakening, said the solicitor.

“The case was not about the rights and wrongs of cryo-preservation,” she said. “In accordance with the children’s case which go before the courts, this case is about the child’s welfare and her wishes being followed.”

Mr Justice Jackson said the girl had died peacefully knowing that her remains would be frozen.

But he said there had been problems on the day she died, and hospital bosses had expressed misgivings.

He suggested that ministers might consider “proper regulation” of cryonic preservation.

Read more: Why I signed up to have my head cryogenically frozen “I received a detailed note from the solicitors for the hospital trust in which the events surrounding (the girl’s) death are described from the point of view of the hospital,” said Mr Justice Jackson, in a postscript to his ruling. It records that (she) died peacefully in the knowledge that her body would be preserved in the way she wished.

“However, the note makes unhappy reading in other ways. The trust expresses very real misgivings about what occurred on the day of (her) death.”

The judge added: “On (her) last day, her mother is said to have been preoccupied with the post-mortem arrangements at the expense of being fully available to (her).

“The voluntary organisation is said to have been under-equipped and disorganised, resulting in pressure being placed on the hospital to allow procedures that had not been agreed.

“Although the preparation of (her) body for cryogenic preservation was completed, the way in which the process was handled caused real concern to the medical and mortuary staff.”

And he went on: “It may be thought that the events in this case suggest the need for proper regulation of cryonic preservation in this country if it is to happen in future.”