The parents of 12-year-old Archie Battersbee have lost a Supreme Court bid to block the withdrawal of his life-sustaining treatment pending a review of his case by a UN committee. Doctors had previously said they would start withdrawing treatment from 12pm on Tuesday, but since the application had been made they were made to wait for the decision.
His family said that if his life support is to be cut off they want him to be moved to a hospice, where he can pass away in a "peaceful" environment, the Mirror reports. The 12-year-old had been in a coma since April after he suffered a catastrophic brain injury.
Doctors treating Archie at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, said he was brain-stem dead and that continued life-support treatment was not in his best interests. On Monday afternoon, shortly after 3pm, a judge ruled the schoolboy's life support could be turned off after his family lost a last-ditch bid to keep him alive.
Mum Hollie Dance and dad Paul Battersbee then filed an application directly with the Supreme Court, asking for his treatment to continue so the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) could have time to consider their complaint, made last week. But, refusing permission to appeal, a panel of three justices concluded the Court of Appeal "made the correct decision".
Archie's mum has left the door open to another legal challenge to stop her son's life support being cut off.
Speaking to reporters outside The Royal London Hospital, Hollie Dance said: "Legally, I think we're exploring one more option this evening but that really is sort of the end." She added: "I will continue to fight right until the bitter end. Is that the way forward in this country then we're allowed to execute children because they've got disabilities? What next?"
In a lengthy statement announcing the appeal refusal, Lords Hodge, Kitchin and Stephens said: "As this panel stated in its note of determination last week, the justices have great sympathy with the plight of Archie's devoted parents who face a circumstance that is every parent's nightmare - the loss of a much-loved child."
The judges continued: "It has to be borne in mind that, sadly, the central issue between Archie's parents on the one hand and the NHS trust, which is supported by Archie's very experienced guardian, has not been about Archie's recovery but about the timing and manner of his death.
"As Sir Andrew MacFarlane recorded in his earlier judgement of July 25, there is no prospect of any meaningful recovery. Even if life-sustaining treatment were to be maintained, Archie would die in the course of the next few weeks through organ failure and then heart failure.
"The maintenance of the medical regime, as (Mr Justice Hayden) held in his very sympathetic judgement, 'serves only to protract his death'. That conclusion was one which the judge reached only 'with the most profound regret'."
The panel concluded: "According to the law of England and Wales, Archie's best interests and welfare are the paramount consideration. The panel reaches this conclusion with a heavy heart and wishes to extend its deep sympathy to Archie's parents at this very sad time."
Ms Dance said earlier on Tuesday: "We are having to battle over every decision with the hospital. There is nothing dignified in how we are being treated as a family in this situation. We do not understand what the rush is and why all of our wishes are being denied.
"I know Archie's still with us. Archie's showing very different signs to what the clinicians are actually putting over to the courts. He's very much there, he's progressing in so many ways."
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