Re JS (Disposal of Body) – Cryonic Preservation

The Court recently granted an application that a 14-year-old girl could be cryonically preserved upon her death. The girl, known as ‘JS’, had a rare form of terminal cancer and wanted the “chance to be cured and woken up, even in hundreds of years’ time”. 
 JS’s father had initially opposed but then later agreed subject to the condition (amongst others) that he and certain family members could view the body. JS did not want this. The Court ordered that JS’s mother could deal with the arrangements and be the sole administrator of her estate. The Court recognised that this would inevitably exclude JS’s father from seeing his daughter’s body.
 The Court was not approving or encouraging the concept of cryogenic preservation but providing a means of resolving the dispute between JS’s parents.