Doctors can lawfully stop providing life-support treatment to Archie Battersbee, appeal judges have ruled.
The 12-year-old's parents asked for a review of the case after a High Court judge ruled that the youngster was 'brain-stem dead'. Mr Justice Hayden supported the view of doctors at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, that treatment would not be in his best interests.
Today (Monday), three Court of Appeal judges refused an appeal put forward by Archie's family that his treatment should continue. Sir Andrew McFarlane, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Peter Jackson had considered arguments at a hearing at the Court of Appeal in London last week.
Judges had been asked to postpone the ruling but refused. A lawyer representing Archie’s parents said his mother Hollie Dance thought her son had been trying to breathe independently.
Judges were also told that Archie’s father had been taken ill shortly before the appeal court hearing and had gone to hospital, but the judges did not allow this to delay their ruling. Doctors can now lawfully remove his life-support.
Archie was left in a comatose state after suffering 'catastrophic' brain damage three months ago. His mum found him unconscious with a ligature over his head on April 7.
She thinks he may have been taking part in an online challenge. Lawyers for the family last week argued that Mr Justice Hayden had not given 'real or proper weight' to Archie’s previously expressed wishes and religious beliefs, nor given 'real or proper weight' to Archie’s family’s wishes.
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