Supreme Court judge has ruled that doctors may legally stop providing life-sustaining treatment to a 12-year-old boy who suffered a “catastrophic” brain injury three months ago, after examining evidence.
Doctors treating Archie Battersbee say continuing treatment is not in his best interest and should be terminated.
Archie’s parents, Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, from Southend in Essexdisagree, and say his heart is still beating.
Justice Hayden, who reviewed evidence at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court earlier this week, concluded Friday that ending the trial was in Archie’s best interests.
He described what had happened to Archie as a “tragedy of immeasurable proportions”.
Another Supreme Court judge, Ms. Justice Arbuthnot, had previously concluded Archie was dead.
But the appeals court judges upheld an objection by Archie’s parents to Ms Arbuthnot’s decisions, saying the evidence should be reviewed.
Doctors treating Archie at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, have told judges they believe he is “brain-stem dead” and say continuing life-support treatment is not in his best interests.
Lawyers representing the Royal London Hospital’s governing trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, have asked for decisions on what steps are in Archie’s best interests.
Archie’s mother has shared how she found him unconscious on April 7 with a ligature over his head and believes he entered an online challenge.
He has not regained consciousness.