Original subtitles

There's no hope?

Well, there's always hope.

But I won't lie to you.

When the leukemia comes back post -transplant, it's terminal.

He's going to die.

That's my medical opinion, yes.

How long?

They're saying six months.

They?

The oncologist, the radiologist, all the doctors that we've been talking to.

I'm sorry. I wish...

It's the longest.

Yes.

What's the shortest?

Um, it could be two or three.

Let's do this.

Bobby, come on in.

Have a seat, son.

I'm going to die. The cancer's back.

All right, ten minutes before the bell, time for question of the day. Who has a

question?

Ah, Bobby.

Yes. What happens when you die?

Ah, that's not a very fun question, I don't think.

Well, I'd like to know the answer, please.

If you ask your parents, they make you sound like dead in your world.

But I know it couldn't be like that.

So, that's my question.

What really happens when you die?

All right.

Who'd like to respond to Bobby's question?

Ah, Cynthia.

God help us.

Yes. When you die, first I'd like to say that's an excellent question. The best

one we've had this week.

Next to mine, of course, about Maxwell House coffee.

We do want to know what's wrong with that last drop.

Well, I think we agreed, Cynthia, that that'll remain one of life's darkest

mysteries. Now, if you'd like to address Bobby's question.

Yes. When you die, things happen to the body and soul.

First, the body.

You get buried in your best suit because you want to look nice at the wake where

everybody comes to stare you dead.

Then, after the funeral, the maggots eat your flesh, leaving nothing but bone.

This is why you're laid on your side in the ground.

So when you're nothing but bone, your pants stay on.

Now, your soul goes to heaven if you're good, to hell if you're bad.

There are a lot of different rules when it comes to good and bad. I only know

two so far.

Don't ever smoke cigarettes.

And don't ever touch a penis.

That's very bad.

Thank you for your in -depth analysis, Cynthia.

I hadn't finished.

Well, you've given us more than enough to ponder.

Let's go on now to another question. We still have a few minutes.

Zachary.

How come grown -ups never tell us the truth about death?

What's going on?

My clients went to see Carter, then they came to see me.

Now we come to you.

Judge Bone is next.

Your clients?

Jill, given the condition of Bobby Hutton, it might make sense to put him

hypothermia now, before the disease... Carter! There's been a lot of recent

progress in cryonics. It's conceivable that ten years down the road... There's

no scientific evidence that a person can be frozen and then brought back to

life. I certainly hope that Dr. Pike is not represented to you in any way. All

I've represented is that it's a genetic possibility. Dr. Pike!

Cryonics is a theory. It isn't even close to reality.

I understand that, Jill. But the reality is that Bobby will be dead in six

months.

We're not big fans of reality.

Well, first of all, it's suicide.

And it's against the law. Leave the legals to me.

We're going to see Judge Bone.

I think we got a shot and we want you to go with us.

Why? What can I do?

Well, you can admit as a doctor of Western medicine that life suspension is

possibility in our future. No, then get a cryonics expert.

I'm not... We already have seven.

The AG's office will have their experts, too.

Judge Bone will eventually want to hear from Dr. C. Trust.

That's Carter and you. All you have to do is admit that it's possible.

No.

Jill, what's the harm?

If it offers a fraction of hope, then why not?

I'm sorry, Julia, but I will not walk into a courtroom and ask Judge Bone to

your son into a freezer.

I will not do that. So what? We should just stand by and let the leukemia run

its course?

No, I told you.

I want to start some transfusions. I want to start him on prednisone. I want

schedule some radiation.

I want to maybe then aspirate the bone marrow.

You said that it's fatal.

All you can do with medicine is buy him six months.

Forget it. She's out.

We're going without her.

Talk to them about death.

They're asking about it, and I don't know what to say.

The Bambi's in a better place routine doesn't work anymore.

Well, I just don't think we should be filling the minds of nine -year -olds

all this talk of dying. Their minds are already filled with it. Kids obsessed on

it. You can't pick up a newspaper or hear the news without hearing about

somebody dying.

But look at these articles.

Teenagers today are thinking more about their funeral than their wedding day.

Death and dying is in the mindset of our youth, and we have got to deal with it.

Call Father Barrett. He has a killer afterlife sermon.

I even plagiarized part of it for Easter service.

They're still laughing at him over the shoe business. You're the minister.

You're on the school committee. They should be hearing it from you.

Have you completely lost your mind?

Not completely, Judge.

You want a court order allowing a child to be frozen?

To preserve him till medical science can one day cure his illness.

At which point you plan to thaw him out.

Exactly.

Leukemia could take Bobby Hutton, that's a certainty.

Cryonics could save him, that's a possibility.

We're asking the court to favor the possibility of life over the certainty

death.

Mr. Beale, do you have a response?

Actually, your honor, it's difficult for me to even speak.

The last time I was called to Rome, your hospital wanted to take the heart of an

Alzheimer's patient and give it to somebody else.

You denied that request.

And since then, I've learned that the gentleman with Alzheimer's has been made

the mayor of this community.

Now I've been dispatched here again because you're endeavoring to turn a

-year -old boy into a science experiment.

Let's leave off the sarcasm, counsel, and address the... Actually, in this

Your Honor, I'd like my sarcasm to be on the record. Judge, I admit that this is

a desperate measure.

Bobby Hutton is, in fact, also desperate.

Well, if you want to freeze him after he dies, fine.

But I can't find any way... Then it'll be too late.

Leukemia will destroy his body. His only chance is to be frozen now.

There is a law against the... There's always a law, isn't there?

If cryonics can offer hope to Bobby Hutton, let's give it to him. Damn the

This is Rome!

Cryonics does not offer him any real hope. It has no chance... That's a

for the experts.

Let's hear from the experts.

Let's see if that hope exists.

Ten o 'clock tomorrow.

I'll hear from your doctors.

Adjourned.

What's wrong with you?

Excuse me?

Pumping up grieving parents with cryonics?

They came to me. You're a doctor. You're subject to the Hippocratic Oath. The

first rule being do no harm, and you counsel suicide.

You asked me about cryonics. I explained it. I did not recommend it. I did not

counsel suicide, and your prejudices against science aside, don't you ever

charge into my office again attacking me as a doctor. As a doctor, you have a

moral duty. The Hippocratic Oath is about survival, clinging to life. That

principle is completely served by cryonics. No, it's perverse. It's

nature. You want nature, Jill? Here.

That's death.

That's perverse.

You're the shock tactic, Carter.

Cryonics is medical experimentation.

The kid is dying. Because he's meant to die, Carter. We're not going to change

that. Maybe we can. No, I'm not going to sit back while you and your ghouls turn

a nine -year -old kid into an experiment for the science fair just so you can

sit around the pool bragging at your coroner's convention.

You self -righteous, arrogant, narrow -minded bitch.

That's right.

I said it. If you come up with a way to save Bobby Hutton, I'll back off. Until

then, how dare you tell me or anybody else not to try?

By resurrection, we don't really mean the raising of the physical body.

It's spiritual.

That wasn't my question.

Does the soul float up as soon as you die, or do you have to go to a mortician

first?

As soon as you die, your soul goes straight to heaven.

Can the soul go to hell?

Well, Zach, we don't actually think of heaven or hell as a physical place.

What's going on?

All right, that's enough.

The kids don't trust what I talk.

They think you're hiding the truth.

We know there's a hell unless you're Jewish.

Especially if you smoke cigarettes or touch penises. My aunt did both.

Kids, there's one rule across the boards in all religions.

Kids go to heaven. I mean, you're not old enough to go to hell.

Even Catholic hell, which you all know, has a much bigger occupancy.

Henry.

Sorry. I'm supposed to die of leukemia, so my

parents want to freeze me instead.

What? It's called cryonics.

They drain my blood and put me in a frozen tub.

When they come with the cure, they defrost me and bring me back to life.

Is he making that up? No.

His parents are in court right now.

I gotta know.

Will I be in heaven when I'm frozen?

And then when they thaw me out, will my soul come back to my body?

The technology for reanimation is almost here.

Objection. This man has no foundation in cryonics.

He's a medical doctor who specializes in corpses, and he does understand.

I want to hear from a molecular biologist, not a medical examiner. I'm

a medical examiner. Quiet!

I want you to hear from Carter first.

My experts will back him up. Well, let's cut to it.

How do you freeze somebody and bring him back to living?

Okay, first of all, Judge, we already do it to a lesser extent.

In operations, we put patients into deep hypothermia sometimes, usually to stop

blood flow during transplant.

So it's already being done.

Mm -hmm, for half an hour, maybe.

That's a little different than freezing somebody for 20 years.

Once the engineers develop the genetic technology to repair individual cells in

the body, they'll be able to freeze people and then reanimate them years

And how long, Doctor, before this technology exists?

Well, there's no telling. Genetic breakthroughs are happening every day

the world.

We thought we'd never be able to cure leukemia, but now we could have a cure

less than 10 years.

And at that point, you could hit the frost and bring Bobby Hutton back?

I know it sounds like voodoo, but the day is coming when we will be able to

revive frozen people, maybe even a hundred years later.

That may scare you. It scares me, but the day is coming.

If you all talk at once, I can't separate you from the voices in my head.

Sending a minister to talk about death, it's outrageous.

They're small children.

Religion shouldn't be in the schools anyway.

All right, settle down. I'll talk to the principal and the minister.

But let me ask you.

Do you talk to your children about death?

No.

Well, don't you think you should?

No, I don't think you should.

Well, if parents don't discuss the subject, maybe the school should.

Death is not an appropriate subject.

My God, these are innocent little children.

How should we kill him?

We'll put him in the freezer.

That's how chronics works.

Shouldn't we make him unconscious first?

He'll be so cold.

Frogs are cold -blooded. I don't think it'll bother him.

Okay.

Bye, Ross.

See you when you thaw out.

Will he come back to life?

He should. It works with fish.

Bye, Ross.

He sounds mad.

He's okay.

I think he wants out.

You know, I have to admit, at first I thought this was ridiculous, but this

cryonic technology, it could actually exist one day.

It really shouldn't be a surprise.

Years ago, if your heart stopped, you were dead. Now we can restart it and

revive people from clinical death. Even brain death can be reversed sometimes.

And I've been reading they're already freezing embryos and corneas, heart

valves, all of which can be brought back to life. And in 20 years, we might be

able to do that to a brain.

So, assuming that this genetic progress continues, we might actually be able to

cure not only leukemia, but many other, if not...

All diseases.

It's possible.

Huh. Well, what about aging?

Does the genetic potential exist to reverse the aging process?

Hard to say, but given the developments in genetic technology,

no credible scientist could really rule out the possibility.

You know, I got a real problem with getting older myself.

When I'm 50, I might want to be frozen to wait for...

I don't know, the aging cure.

I would do that.

I don't want to get old.

You know, Your Honor, this is so exciting. I'm going to stipulate right

to all of the plaintiff's experts. We don't have to waste the court's time

listening to scientists.

I'm going to stipulate that one day cryonics will work and we will have the

for leukemia. Think about it.

People won't have to die from disease.

Nobody will have to die from old age if they don't want to. Everybody, in either

real or suspended form, will live forever.

Nobody has to die. It's fantastic.

I mean, if we can eliminate death, the world will be a perfect place.

Right, Dr. Pike?

Right?

Look, in the interest of public policy, let's put Bobby in the freezer.

Let's do it today.

Why won't you help him?

I want to help him, honey, but I just don't think that freezing him is help.

But if they invent a cure, he could live longer.

It's not God's plan for us to live like that. To be stuck in liquid nitrogen and

then defrosted umpteen years later, that's not God's plan.

I know this is complicated, but we're human beings, and when it's time to go,

there comes a point when it's wrong to deny death.

Okay?

God's plan?

What? You wouldn't want the boy frozen because of God?

No, I wouldn't want the boy frozen because that's effectively assisting

putting him in hypothermia. But you were willing to help Howard Butts die when

he wanted to give away his heart. You supported that idea. No, that's

Okay, why?

Well, because that could work.

Cryonics can't. If it could, would you say yes?

No, it's still perverted. Why?

Why?

Because he's trapped in nowhere.

He's frozen.

What?

Okay, if we had taken Howard's heart, he would have died, but he would have

surrendered to death.

Keeping a person frozen, suspended so that you can bring him back, he's

in life or death.

How can his spirit or his soul... What are you talking about?

I don't know.

But, Jimmy, there's got to be some kind of afterlife, right? And I think that

this cryonics voodoo would preempt that.

You'd be suspended in nowhere forever.

You wouldn't be in heaven and you wouldn't be on earth.

You'd be nowhere.

That's got to be worse than hell.

You really believe in heaven and hell?

Well, don't you?

I believe in God.

I believe that all of us have a spiritual thing inside.

But dead is dead.

When you're gone, you're gone.

How can you think that?

How can you, a doctor, make a medical judgment based on your belief in an

afterlife? I'm not doing that. I'm saying that medical science has a

don't know where the line is, but cryonics is on the other side of it. Uh

Well, I believe everyone has a right to their religious convictions.

But if my son gets ill, if that contracts leukemia, and there is a

would freeze him?

I don't know.

But I wouldn't say, let him die.

It's God's plan, and I would like to think you wouldn't.

I have an early appointment.

Okay. Have a good day.

You too.

Bye.

I don't want you telling them about souls leaving bodies. I don't want

discussion of heaven and hell.

Michael Oslo asked me to speak to them. Well, I'm telling you not to.

You too.

I haven't said anything.

It's only a matter of time.

Well, Michael Oslo was right about one thing.

The kids think about death.

I'll make sure there's somebody to talk to them, but I want it to be secular.

That's all.

Thank you.

Howard, we're in your office.

Oh, never mind.

Do you hear what's happening about this Hutton boy?

It's grotesque.

Gary, we may have to speak up.

If Judge Bowen even thinks about granting that motion... Then we get

But you'll listen.

You picked a fine time to get caught with your Imelda Marcos collection.

Don't you start.

The problem is we don't have any real credibility on this afterlife issue. Oh,

we can preach all we want, but they know.

In the end, we're just guessing.

Like everybody else.

I don't want to die, but according to the doctors, I guess I'm gonna.

Must be scary to think of getting stuck in an icebox, though. But I'm more

scared of being dead forever.

Why?

Well, even if heaven is a great place, I won't know anybody.

Everybody I know, they're all alive.

Except my grandfather, but my mom doesn't think he got in.

Are you afraid of being alone?

When somebody dies, we all get sad because he's gone and because we'll miss

But for the person who dies, it's worse.

He loses everybody.

He has to miss everybody all at once.

I want to keep living some more.

I'd like to try cryonics.

Thank you, Bobby.

Your witness.

don't know much about heaven but they say that you can still sort of see

down here on earth have you ever heard that yes but they can't see you is

that important yes why because my parents they won't be able to see me

to them i'll be completely gone do you think about how sad your parents will be

if you die yes

Do you worry about them being sad?

Yes.

Bobby, I know that these are very tough questions, but I need you to

really concentrate because the truth is very important.

Is one of the reasons that you want to be frozen, is it because you're worried

about your parents?

Yes. Yeah.

And if you had to make a guess, what would you say upsets you more?

Dying or making your parents sad?

Making them sad.

And the idea of cryonics, of being frozen, whose idea was that?

Mom and dad's.

I see.

Thank you.

You're a very brave young man.

I have no further questions, Your Honor.

You want me to talk to the fourth grade?

You're a psychic.

You're on speaking terms with dead people.

The kids will listen to what you say.

Have Kenny talk to them. He's been there. Ginny, what do you mean he's been

there? Nothing.

You got a big mouth. Do you know that, Ginny?

Talk to the kids.

Have you been dead before?

I must be sundowning again.

What was that about?

Nothing.

Well, what did Ginny mean when she said you'd been there?

Last year when I was shot.

Remember when the frogman's kid put a bullet next to my heart?

When they were operating, for about five seconds or so, I was suddenly above the

table looking down at my body, watching Jill reach for the bullet.

Well, that could have been a hallucination.

That's what I thought. I asked Jill.

I asked her what she did.

Everything that happened.

She described exactly what I saw.

And I was completely unconscious at the time.

I think I was dead.

And I came back.

I was up late last night, Your Honor.

Working on this case.

And I couldn't help but think...

What a terrible judge you are.

A judge should always follow the law and be above all consistent.

A lawyer should know what to expect when he walks into his courtroom.

The killing none a year ago, you ruled that suicide fell within the right to

privacy. And you held that assisting suicide was legal.

But when Howard Bussier suddenly say assisting his suicide is wrong.

You're not consistent.

A lawyer cannot rely on your rulings, and that's why you'll never make it to

Supreme Court.

I'm crushed.

The judges who do make it to the top, they worry about precedent and how their

rulings will affect the next case.

The trouble with you is you worry too much about the actual case in front of

you.

Well, right in front of you today is Bobby Hutton.

He wants to grow up to play baseball for the Cubs.

He wants to grow up to get married.

He wants to grow up.

The odds are he won't. His only hope is this thing called cryonics.

It's a long shot.

Nobody is kidding anybody.

But to Bobby Hutton, this long shot is everything.

It's all he's got.

I know most judges will look at the big picture and deny the court order. Well,

they have to, of course.

But we're appearing before you.

There's a brave little boy here who's dying.

I hope for his sake that you'll never make it to the Supreme Court.

Every human being, when born onto this earth, is blessed with one thing in

common.

A lifetime.

Could be a hundred years if you're lucky, ten minutes if you're not.

It appears that Bobby Hutton's lifetime will be about

ten years.

It's a tragedy that it could be cut so short.

Sitting in a room with this young man,

How could any of us not be moved, touched by his spirit,

his vitality, and his dignity?

You don't often think of nine -year -olds as having dignity, but this young

does.

How unfair that his lifetime could be cut so short.

But unlike in a courtroom, the laws of nature are very arbitrary.

They strike quickly, often with no apparent connection to fairness, and

usually no appeal.

Everybody in this room desperately wants to believe in cryonics.

If it'll give Bobby life, then damn it, let it be true. But we all know better.

Despite the microscopic hope that Mr. Wombo speaks of, we know...

That once we freeze this boy to the extent that his organs no longer

will be dead Dead forever That's not just a likely scenario.

It is as close to a certainty as We can get and it's a tragedy

But more tragic still would be to take a lifetime that is already

limited to 10 years and chop off six months.

Life is, it is so very precious,

especially his. He has a day and another day after that and a

whole week after that, then another week and another. He has six whole months to

be with his family, to love them.

To be loved.

Six months.

For Bobby Hutton, that is his lifetime.

How dare we, in the name of science, in the name of progress, and most of all,

in the name of God, how dare we take that away from him.

It was reckless disregard for life. I'm surprised at both of you. How do you

think he felt?

Cold. It was cruel, and so was shellacking him. That's very

It was a tribute. A tribute?

Well, I'm sure he'd be so honored if only you hadn't murdered him.

We thought if we could freeze him and thaw him out, we'd learn stuff that

help all frog kind.

Well, I think the way to help frog kind is to show a little respect for each

frog's life.

That's Ross.

We asked for volunteers.

He jumped.

All rise.

Be seated.

Every so often.

A judge gets a case where the law doesn't really help him at all.

I find myself not interpreting rules or statutes,

but rather gauging, then trying to reflect

the values of the community.

But on this one, I'm going to do something I've never done before.

Not that it will control my ruling.

But, since I have a decent cross -section of society in this room, I'm

ask for a show of hands.

For my own education, how many here think Bobby Hutton should be permitted

frozen if that is his wish?

Please raise your hands.

And how many find the notion offensive?

All right.

Thank you.

Excuse me, Your Honor.

With the court's permission, I'd like to say what I find offensive.

It's the fallacy that people in this country have a right to privacy and self

-determination. It's a big lie.

What's your problem, Howard?

My problem is they say freedom means nothing left to lose.

Well, that boy is terminal.

He has almost nothing left to lose, and he's still not free to take whatever

measures he wants to save his life.

Even when those measures threaten nobody but himself.

If we want to risk death to save our lives, how

dare any court presumed to tell us no?

Women can have abortions because you say it's their body, therefore they're

right.

Why can't the sick and the elderly get the same courtesy?

We're the ones who are dying. Why the hell should we have to come in here and

ask your permission to try whatever we've got left to try?

You grant us the right to linger, the right to suffer.

Every other prerogative goes to society.

I'm sick of it.

That boy's life is on the line, and you ask for a show of hands?

I'm sick of the lawyers and the judges. I'm sick of the courts. And right now,

I'm especially sick of you.

I'd like to lay that little diatribe on your roll, Timus Howard, but I won't.

I know I had that coming.

Excuse me.

As long as we're opening up the forum.

We're not.

Well, Howard got to have his say.

Maybe there's another sentiment that needs expressing.

Do you want your cross -section of society or not?

30 seconds.

Go.

This right to die thing has mushroomed out of all proportion.

You know, it's a different thing to refuse extraordinary life -saving means

being put to death.

I think that point's already been made, Henry. Well, I haven't heard anybody

make the point that death is a natural process.

We're human organisms.

We're put on this earth with mortality, and medicine should not be used to

pervert that. I'm sorry. I have to respond.

Hold on. One thing, Judge. One point.

There will always be new diseases. Twenty years ago, we didn't have AIDS.

will always be new plagues.

Doctors should try to cure whatever they can. If it's leukemia today, fine.

Cure leukemia.

Nature and medicine will always battle. We shouldn't be deciding what kind of

mortality is natural. Now, now, wait a minute.

I haven't finished.

Hey!

We're trying to save one life here, okay?

I don't give a damn about the societal ramifications or the religious,

philosophical consequences.

I don't want to lose my son.

Why can't it just be about that?

Huh?

He doesn't want to die.

What the hell are you people all doing here?

Leave us alone.

Just leave us alone.

We'll adjourn for one hour. I will then make my ruling.

All right.

Same as before, your rate's way up. That little tantrum in court didn't help.

Forgive me for having an opinion.

A person with Alzheimer's should know better than to have a point of view.

we don't know better because we have Alzheimer's. Catch 22.

I should probably go home and hug my teddy bear. You're angry.

Damn right I'm angry.

That boy should be allowed to be frozen if he wants.

Maybe I should try it, too.

What can doctors do for me, except take my pulse?

Well, one thing doctors shouldn't do is play God.

When a child of nine gets leukemia, or when somebody gets Alzheimer's, maybe

isn't playing God. Maybe the genetic experts should get a chance.

In that case, you'd be dead.

I'm not afraid of death.

I'm afraid of dying.

You're not afraid of death?

Are you?

I don't think much about it.

I'm terrified of it.

Why?

I don't know.

What if there happened a heaven or an afterlife?

What if this is all there is and the only thing that's on the other side is

darkness?

You'd be all alone.

A hundred thousand years and that's just the beginning of eternity.

You'd be all alone in the darkness forever and ever and ever.

Maybe we created the idea of heaven and hell because nothingness, that's worse.

I'm terrified of death.

I represent the three comatose vegetables, the potato man, now a would

popsicle. The metaphor for life is food.

Do you see?

Yeah.

Food and life, like food, can sometimes last longer with a little refrigeration.

God works in mysterious ways.

I live by this.

Yeah, I can see that.

Judge is back. Let's go.

Be seated.

As I said before, the law gives me little guidance on this one.

The problem is, the boundaries of medicine are so rapidly changing, the

can't keep up.

How can I rely on legal precedents which were made with no comprehension of

today's technology?

We're learning how to clone people already.

The technology is here for parents to go in and choose the sex of their child.

Someday we'll be able to select eye color and height.

One day we'll have the ability to make carbon copy people.

And I'm sure when that day gets close, the law.

will jump in to legislate, just like it's jumping in today over cryonics.

The Attorney General says we can't induce a boy's death.

The parents argue we're trying to prolong life.

It all comes down to definitions and rules where medicine and law

don't agree.

But...

What it finally, finally comes down to is the judge.

Me.

Despite the robe and the impressive setting, Mr. and Mrs. Hutton, beneath

veil, I'm a human being.

And as a human being, it isn't in me to allow your son

to be frozen to death.

It doesn't seem right.

I'd like to say I'm governed by a legal mandate.

I'm not.

I'd like to say I don't have a choice.

I do.

But my choice is not to induce his death for any reason.

If he has six months,

Then he has six months.

Like Mr. Beale says, that makes his time more precious.

And we shouldn't shorten it further.

Bobby, I hope you understand.

But I'm not asking you to.

I...

You're an extraordinary young man.

I'll pray for you.

I'll pray for all of us.

Plaintiff's motion denied.