Brain-damaged boy should have life support withdrawn, rules UK judge

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/30/brain-damaged-boy-life-support-withdrawn-judge

Version 0 of 1.

A high court judge has ruled that a boy with brain damage should be taken off a life-support machine.

Specialists had told Ms Justice Russell that the one-year-old had suffered “profound irreversible brain damage”. They said it was in his best interests for live-sustaining intensive care including mechanical ventilation to be withdrawn.

His parents disagreed. The boy’s mother told the judge that doctors did not have to right to “end his life because he has got brain damage”.

His father added that no one had the right to take away the “privilege” of life from the child. He also complained that doctors had refused to listen.

Russell analysed the case at a hearing in the family division of the high court in London on Monday – after an application by the NHS foundation trust that runs the hospital where the boy is being cared for.

The judge gave the trust permission to withdraw life-sustaining ventilation, saying she had reached the decision “very sadly” and with “great reluctance”.

She said she had to gauge what was in the child’s best interests after balancing medical evidence against his parents’ views.

Russell said neither the child, his parents nor the trust could be identified.

She said the restriction relating to the naming of the trust would remain in force as long as the boy was alive.