Frozen Corpses and Feuding Parents: Re JS (Disposal of Body)

Abstract

In October 2016, a dying teenager won the legal right to have her remains cryogenically frozen and stored indefinitely in an American clinic. The cryonics aspect was novel, posing questions around the legality of this particular method of corpse ‘disposal’ in the UK and the processes involved. More significantly, the case raises other substantive legal issues around the fate of the dead, including the status of funeral instructions under English law, and how courts adjudicate parental disputes over the funeral arrangements for a dead child.