英國患癌女孩獲准冰凍遺體 期待200年後復活

A British girl who died after a terminal illness won the right to have her body frozen in an unprecedented ruling, the High Court said on Friday.

英國高等法院11月18日透露，一名因絕症而去世的英國女孩獲得了死後冷凍遺體的准許，這是一次史無前例的裁決。

The 14-year-old girl from London had written to a judge explaining she wanted a chance to "live longer" after suffering from a rare form of cancer.

這個14歲的倫敦女孩曾給一名法官寫信，表示她希望在患上罕見癌症之後，有機會“活得久一些”。

She had researched and decided to undergo cryonics, the process through which people's bodies are frozen in the hope they will be brought back to life with the help of future medical advancements.

她生前研究了人體冷凍法，並決定將它付諸實踐。這項技術把人的身體冰凍起來，以期未來先進的醫療技術能使亡者重生。

"I am only 14-years-old and I don't want to die but I know I am going to die," she wrote to the judge.

“我現在才14歲，我不想死，但我知道我別無選擇。”她在信中寫道。

"I think being cryo-preserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up -- even in hundreds of years' time."

“我想冷凍法能給我一個痊癒和甦醒的機會，即使可能是在幾百年之後。”

The girl launched legal action to request that her mother, who supported the child's wishes, be the only person allowed to make decisions about the disposal of her body.

這個女孩通過法律訴訟要求她的母親成爲唯一一個有權在她死後處置遺體的人，她的母親支持女兒冷凍遺體的心願。

Her parents are divorced and the teenager's father initially objected to his daughter's plan.

她的父母離異，父親最初不同意女兒的這個想法。

Judge Peter Jackson ruled in the girl's favour in October following a private hearing at the High Court of England and Wales in London.

在倫敦的英格蘭和威爾士高等法院舉行了一次不開庭審理之後，十月，法官彼得.傑克遜做出了裁決，女孩如願以償。

The girl was too ill to attend the hearing and has since died, with her remains being taken to the United States and cryogenically frozen.

這個小姑娘當時已病得無法出席審理，死後，她的遺體被送去美國冷凍了起來。

US-based Cryonics Institute issued a statement saying that the teenager had arrived at their facility and "packed in dry ice, at 5:00 pm on the 25th of October, approximately 8 days after death," becoming its 144th patient.

美國的人體冷凍機構發出了一份聲明，稱女孩的遺體已被送到，且“於10月25日下午5點，死亡約8天后，以乾冰凍藏。”這是該機構冷凍的第144位患者。

Its minimum fee for cryopreservation is $28,000, according to its website, and The Times reported the cost to the girl's family was $46,000. The case was not reported on before Friday in keeping with the wishes of the teenager, who also asked that no one involved be identified.

根據該機構網站提供的信息，人體冷凍的最低費用是2.8萬美元，而據《泰晤士報》報道，這個小女孩的家庭爲此承擔了4.6萬美元。爲了尊重女孩的願望，此事件直到週五才見報，同時她也不希望媒體公開任何參與者的身份。

Jackson said his decision was based on the dispute between the girl's parents and the best outcome for the child's welfare, not on the science itself, in what he described as an unprecedented ruling.

傑克遜表示，他的裁決是在傾聽了女孩父母的爭論、考慮了孩子的利益後做出的，並不是基於這項技術本身，他認爲這是一個史無前例的裁決。

"It is no surprise that this application is the only one of its kind to have come before the courts in this country -- and probably anywhere else," he said.

“毫無意外，這可能是英國唯一一封呈交法庭的此類申請，大概也是全世界唯一的”，他說。

"It is an example of the new questions that science poses to the law -- perhaps most of all to family law," Jackson added.

“科技的進步給法律體系提出了新問題，或許大部分是關於家庭法的，這就是一個例子。”傑克遜補充道。

The judge described the case as a "tragic combination" of childhood illness and family conflict, while praising the girl for the "valiant way" she approached the situation.

根據法官的描述，這個案例是少兒患病和家庭矛盾的“不幸結合”，但女孩在面對這種境遇時表現出的勇氣十分令人欽佩。

In her letter to the judge, the 14-year-old wrote:

在呈交法官的信裏，這個十四歲的小姑娘寫道：

"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.

“我不想被埋在地下。我想活着，想活得久一些，我想未來他們或許會找到治癒這種癌症的法子，然後把我喚醒。”

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

“我想要這個機會。這就是我的願望。”

The girl's solicitor, Zoe Fleetwood, said her client had called Jackson her "hero" after being told of the court's decision shortly before her death on October 17.

女孩的律師佐伊.弗利特伍德說，小女孩於10月17日去世了，死前不久她得知了法院的裁決，她覺得傑克遜是她的“英雄”。

"By October 6, the girl knew that her wishes were going to be followed. That gave her great comfort," she told BBC Radio 4. For the last eight years of her life the teenager had not had face-to-face contact with her father, who raised his concerns about the costs and consequences of his daughter being frozen.

“10月6號，小女孩得知她的願望將實現。這給了她極大的安慰。”她告訴BBC廣播四臺。去世前的八年裏，女孩都沒有和父親面對面交流過，這位父親曾很擔憂冷凍遺體的費用和可能造成的後果。

"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 was said to have told Jackson.

“假如200年以後她被治癒了，甦醒過來了，但她可能找不到任何親戚，也可能失去了所有記憶。”據稱父親是這樣對傑克遜說的。

The father's position however shifted during the case, saying that he respected his daughter's decision.

但他後來改變了看法，表示尊重女兒的選擇。