Dying 14-year-old girl won right to be cryogenically frozen

A dying teenage girl has won a landmark legal bid to have her body cryogenically frozen in the hope of being brought back to life in the future.

The 14-year-old had her wish granted shortly before she died of a rare form of cancer in October.

Too young to make a will, she asked the High Court to intervene because her divorced parents were divided over her wishes. Her mother supported the move but her father opposed it.

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The judge ruled that the girl's mother should be allowed to decide. The body of the girl, who was described as a "bright, intelligent young person", has been taken to the US and preserved there.

Justice Peter Jackson, who visited the girl in hospital, said he was moved by the "valiant way" in which she faced her "predicament".

He said the girl, who spent months researching how she could be frozen, "died peacefully in the knowledge her body would be preserved in the way she wished".

She wrote: "I have been asked to explain why I want this unusual thing done. I am only 14-years-old and I don't want to die but I know I am going to die.

"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 may find a cure for my cancer and wake me up.

"I want to have this chance. This is my wish."