TIL - A terminally ill 14 year old girl won the right to have her body cryogenically preserved before she died
Today on the news in the UK there has been much discussion of the case of a 14 year old girl who went to court and won the right to be cryonically preserved following her death.
This is a very sad case because it involves death and specifically the death of a child.
The girl was terminally ill with a rare form of cancer. Her parents were separated and there was some disagreement between her mother who supported her wish for preservation and her father who was against it. Since she was under the age of medical consent and there was disagreement between her parents the case had to go to court.
She died soon after winning the case and her body was transferred to the US today in order to be cryonically preserved.
Please read the article as I feel the letter that the girl wrote to the judge is particularly poignant.
She discusses her hopes to live again and be "woken up" in the future but it is also clear that she knows that this does not guarantee that. I was impressed by her reasoning and also found it quite sad to think of how it must have been for her in such a difficult situation.
It is hard enough as an adult to comprehend our own death and mortality. It also raises important questions about autonomy and children's rights.
You can see the original story from the BBC here:
BBC News: Terminally ill teen won historic ruling to preserve body
What do you think? Should children be granted the right to decide what happens to their body after they die? Should it be solely up to their parents?
Have your say in the comments.
Thank you for reading.
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I think she's old enough to make a request but not a decision. The burden becomes the parents'. This must have been more than difficult for both parents and then to have the court involved. I feel for the father as he was so opposed. The whole thing is a tragic mess in my opinion.No one has been brought back to life from cyro preservation.
We don't know why the father opposed. It may have been for financial reasons if he has other kids. It is not cheap. If it was free I don't see a problem with it, but nothing in life is free I suppose.
Not yet that is. I think it is entirely possible that technology will make this feasible.
The other thing is IF she can be "resurrected" and cured.....she'll still be 14 years old and who will take care of her if it's past her parents' lifetime? It's a bit of a conundrum and I'm glad I didn't have to make a decision like this.
Good point but I don't think that is a sufficient reason to refuse her wish. That will be an ethical consideration for whoever tries to resurrect her in the future. I suspect people will still foster and adopt children whenever it is.
Ya....it's a tough call. It's done....and we probably won't be around to see the results. I'm not for or against....it's something I haven't really given thought to before.
It would be fascinating to know if it worked on or not though but we probably won't like you said.
I need to read the continuing article but I would assume the costs would be tremendous. I have only heard rumors about wealthy or famous people doing this. Is there a university, institution or foundation funding this? I don't know where I would stand. My wife and I are Catholic but we are also both scientists. Either way, as a parent you just hope that you would never be put in a situation like that. Interesting but tough story. You just messed me up crypto. Where's Rachelle at? : )
I think it costs about $100K dollars for your full body but you can get your head frozen for less.
What is the point to having just a part of your body frozen? This is beyond creepy. :D
It is but the idea is that you would be able to grow a new body and reattach it.
This is getting hilarious in a creepy way. :D
It is always creepy. I don't think I could ever have it done to me. Even though I would be dead. How irrational is that? The idea of the liquid nitrogen and the confined space bothers me - even though I won't know it or shouldn't as far as we know. I still have the irrational fear that I would somehow be conscious of it.
Also thought I don't believe in reincarnation having thought more about it - there is no way of knowing for sure. What if it did lock you in some kind of weird limbo? I'm just glad I don't have to think about it. I think that girls situation was exceptional. If I die now at least I know I have been given a fair chance at life which she wasn't.
BTW - I find the paranormal fascinating even though I am a skeptic. Have you ever listened to Mysterious Universe - it's a podcast where they discuss these topics including reincarnation a lot. I believe there was a physician who looked into the topic a lot - Ian Stephenson.
No, I haven't heard of it. I simply read a lot and I also have a lot of personal experience, because of my 21 years of yoga practice.
I am glad people talk about the realities that science can't yet explain or accept - at least open minded persons can get a glimpse of a vast and complex alternate reality.
Science is rather rigid, I'd say - not very long ago they'd scoff at the idea of humans being able to fly - and now we're all moved from the reality of planes to chemtrails and other such stuff :))
Examples could go on.
I'm not a believer; I simply accept that many things are real or at least possible even if I don't know for sure; I also work on expanding my consciousness and experiment within boundaries I deem safe for me.
Ok. I heard a lot about this years ago when San Diego local, Ted Williams died. I think he froze his head. Anyways, thanks for sharing, have a good weekend.
I instantly thought of Futurama when reading about the "head only part".
I know right. Almost like Total Recall or something.
There was also a long running rumour about Walt Disney but that isn't actually true.
Thanks you too:)
Such a sad story I really don't know what to think. So sorry for her and her parents . How they are dealing with this is beyond belief. Hope for the future buts its not hope you really need its advancement in medicine to erode diseases
Yes I agree it is very sad. One consoling factor is that at least she was granted her wish before she died.
I read about that too.. I thought it was really interesting she chose this. It kind of sucks it had to go to court because I think the girls wishes should have been honored by default, last wishes type of deal right.
I guess its really expensive and the father didn't want to pay. It was also really sad this 14yo girl really didn't want to die so young.
Maybe this story will help others have hope for the future.
Yes perhaps that is one positive thing that can come from it.
Different people handle death differently. If this helped her and her family accept this tragedy, then who am I to say it is wrong. As long as it does not hurt anyone else, I hope it gave them the peace they needed. I feel for them.
Agreed. That is definitely another way that it could be considered a positive thing. I also found it that it cost £37,000 in total - not a small amount of money but not as much as I expected. If you have the money and it is your daughter's dying wish I don't see how anyone could be against it.
If the father doesn't want it then he shouldn't have to pay for it. But I am glad she got her wish, even if we can't bring her back.
There is a big problem with people doing whatever they want after someone dies despite how clear their wishes were while alive. I'm tired of going to funerals from people who dedicated much of their life to criticize religion, for example, and one has to go to a church and listen to a priest who never met them use the same bible verses they hated while alive being used to describe them. It's horrible, it's disrespectful. When I have complained about this people tell me the funerals are not for the dead but the living. Selfish IMO
Yes that is true but I think those people have a point to. Funerals are more for the living. The dead person isn't around to care about what happens. That said I think it is selfish to ignore the wishes of the deceased.
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Thanks:)
To bad medical science already knows this doesn't work.
But they will never tell the people, because, if the people knew, a lot of doctors would die.
The medical industry makes too much money, about a million dollars a person.
Good day all. I do not know how to reply after to much recursion has taken place.
But, I will try to answer all who commented.
Watch this video, it will explain a good portion of what I know; of where I get the information that allows me to state that cryogenically freezing a human doesn't work.
Does the Government Own Your Organs? What You Don't a Know Can Kill You
Afterwards, ask any questions you have. I really do not know what you do not know. (Then we can get into deep discussion about consciousness, and where it resides)
Solar panels are not that efficient per dollar yet. The payoff for solar panels is about 15 years in Kalifornia (land of sunshine, and high electric rates) So, you invest in a solar panel, and basically you are paying for 15 years of electricity up front. I believe it is a great investment, however it is a long time to recoup costs.
If you used miners run off of solar panels, you would have to compare costs of solar panels vs price of electricity in china or Greenland. And that is far worse than 15 years.
However, being knowledgeable about solar panels, you can acquire yourself some cheap. Just got to find them at swap meets and auctions. Laptops are great, because they already run off of 12V DC, so you can just hook the panels to the charge controller, to a battery, and battery to the laptop.
Sorry but if you are saying that you know it can't or doesn't work you don't understand what you are talking about. Further I don't understand what solar panels have to do with any of this unless you are suggesting them as a power source for the cryonics.
Under the comments, under my comments there was discussion of solar panels being used for mining and possibly cryo. Thus I commented upon the monetary feasibility of it.
Did you listen to the video about what happens to your organs the moment you die?
Do you understand the space where dreams take place?
Have you looked into OBEs and After death experiences?
I understand very well what I am talking about. (or I don't bring it up at all)
This falls under the area of: Americans are still searching for a cure for cancer!
To bad the Lame Stream Media doesn't report on any of the numerous cancer treatments or centers. When they do bring them up, they say that they are "unscientific".
Having worked in The Cancer Industry (CRI) - I have never seen a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Doctors know what happens at death. Its in so many many journals. It should be commonly known knowledge. It is blatantly obvious from ancient Buddhist texts and modern medical texts. I guess the AMA just has a bunch of doctors that want to play god.
I know exactly what happens biologically - I don't need a video for that. You can find videos that put forward any outrageous argument you want to make. I'm talking about science and specifically biology.
Yes but what you are putting forward are personal and religious beliefs. Nobody knows what happens at death and don't assume that I don't know about the process I am a lot more familiar with the process than you would know as it applies to thinks from a biological standpoint. I think it is a mistake to just declare that it is impossible though. We can only legitimately comment on the biological aspects the rest is purely imagination and speculation.
From the first moment that you create technology and science you are playing God. If you don't like that then you shouldn't be using things like computers and mobile phones - these are all about playing God.
There is no way of knowing if it will work or not. The future is a long time.
I don't believe scientists don't know if cryo preservation works or not. Surely they have toyed with it by now.
I find it absurd to preserve a body after one's death, but... to each his/her choice.
It is only absurd if you believe it is impossible to be brought back. Forever is a long time to assume there won't be sufficient advancement in science. It will probably be possible eventually. I think the bigger question would be if the bodies will still be preserved and the companies will still be around when it happens. That is the biggest part of the gamble in my opinion.
It's not what I believe that matters - I don't function on beliefs, anyway. I prefer experience, provable stuff. From what I've been reading - old spiritual books - it should be possible to be brought back. I'm not going to go there, it's a completely different topic.
I said it was absurd, because from the reincarnation perspective on life, she will come back at some point anyhow. She just won't remember - though I've read about children who do remember past lives and have proven it. So why stick to a sick body? Cos she'll be stuck with it for as long as it's preserved. Well...
"That is the biggest part of the gamble in my opinion." - Ironic, isn't it? From a different perspective, having her body destroyed would be her way to freedom, and an unencumbered access to a new body when the time is right.
So what does science say about your affirmation "The dead person isn't around to care about what happens." - where does that person go? What is that which goes?
The funny thing is that science is sooner or later forced to admit realities that oriental teachings have been telling us for thousands of years. I'll stick to the easiest example - the human aura - which has been proven to exist via Kirlian photography. However, before this photo technique, scientists were keen on denying auras and everything associated with.
And another thing - I'm not religious.
I'm happy to hear lab work is so far advanced; maybe for some people, that is good news. Myself, I don't care about staying here longer than necessary :D :D
"The aim is to not just bring the body back to life but to restore it to normal healthy function." Cool - great. I am just curious who will inhabit that healthily restaured body.
You say this and then you go on to talk about reincarnation. I'm talking about science and probabilities. None of what you have said is provable. Further I don't think commenting about future technology is anywhere near as far fetched as accepting paranormal phenomena as established fact.
Really. How do you know that? Like I said I prefer to deal in science rather than religious beliefs. You seem to have the answers already and know all this for sure. Where is the proof for that and how is this more believable than medical advancements bringing dead people back to life? The aim is to not just bring the body back to life but to restore it to normal healthy function.
We can already do it in ways that would have been considered impossible a century ago. I am always amazed how people are happy to believe in all kinds of paranormal theories but rather obvious inferences based on scientific progress are somehow nonsense. I suspect you don't read a lot of medical/biological research or news because the actual building blocks of what is required to do these sorts of things are already being established.
Paraphrasing what you yourself said, it doesn't matter what you do or don't believe - science will move on regardless.
If anything, people generally underestimate technological developments when it comes to biology.
The technology is moving so quickly, you can't say this isn't possible. My first job in biotech we were sequencing individual genes and it was a tedious process. It took Craig Venter, 10 years to sequence the first human genome and costs almost $3 billion USD. My last job in biotech I worked for a company called Illumina. We performed next gen sequencing and could sequence a human genome in less than a day and for only $1000. The only problem now is the bioinformatics. These instruments are cranking out so much data that it has become a bottleneck and it needs to be parsed. So, that is only within a 15 year time frame. So, where will technology be in 30 or 50 years from now? Hopefully we are all around to see it.
Yes and I think nanotechnology will make a lot of these things a possibility. It is a matter of when rather than if. Also it has a lot of applications in the living particularly in regards to reversing ageing.
Wow, there is somehow potential there to create a project or currency around that. A decentralized preservation chamber that works and maintains itself by renewable energy and prior investments.
That sounds crazy enough that someone may do it! Maybe you could somehow combine the cryo chamber with mining so that you get payed rewards in exchange for supplying electricity to cool the chamber.
@cryptofiend. Omg.
What if we were to create a miner that runs on solar energy. With the energy it Mines Steem and invests it, if the miner at some point dies it will use the funds it has saved to pay someone come and replace it in Steem, if it is making more profits it can also use it to purchase more miners for future maintenance and making sure it lasts forever.
I replied to you all back at the top (less indented)
At 14 I think she's old enough to decide for herself, it should be her decision to make.
I agree even if she was younger I think her parents should respect her wishes. The only issue would be the cost and if they could afford it - cryonic preservation is expensive.