Doctor Hilary Jones has explained why he thinks being transferred to a hospice is not in the best interests of Archie Battersbee.
Archie, 12, has been in a coma since April after he suffered a catastrophic brain injury and the doctors treating him say he is brain-stem dead and that life-support is not in his best interests.
His life support is due to be switched off today at 11am after his parents lost a Supreme Court bid to block the withdrawal of their son's life-sustaining treatment.
During Wednesday's Good Morning Britain, hosts Richard Madeley and Kate Garraway invited Dr Hilary into the studio to discuss the heartbreaking situation.
Richard said: "Last night Archie's mum told us that if treatment is withdrawn, Archie will not be allowed to be taken to a hospice. That's puzzled a lot of people, it seems like a very harsh decision. Why can't they transfer him to a hospice?"
Dr Hilary replied: "I think it's simply because hospices are not equipped with ventilators, oxygen supply, they're simply not equipped like an intensive care unit where someone's on life support.
"Hospices are usually places where people go for end of life care but that doesn't usually involve the kind of treatment and life support treatment that Archie's been on."
Richard then said: "So they'e simply not up to the job basically?"
Dr Hilary continued: "Absolutely yeah, and by transferring him in an ambulance with all that temporary equipment is probably not in Archie's best interests, it's a difficult situation."
Richard went on to touch on Archie's mother Hollie Dance saying that her son had squeezed her hand on more than one occasion.
Hilary commented: "This is such a sad and tragic case... it's so difficult where a loving parent hopes against hope that all is going to be well, despite what the team of medics and nurses say.
"However, what is the case is that muscles twitch, muscles contract and they twitch and it's easy to read into the grasping of a finger, and that it is signal that there is life.
"I think in these situations it's easy to misinterpret what is actually going on and whilst I can understand how a mother might want that to be, it might not be the case," he added.
Mother-of-two Kate then said: "It just feels like we’re in a strange place for doctors and courts and individuals about the end of life moment. One of the things we've heard is that he would die naturally. If he was allowed to stay on life support, his heard would stop beating, the organs would fail.
"What is wrong with just allowing that to happen to give the mum a time to process, to come to terms with the flickers. What is wrong with you doing that?" Kate asked.
"It's prolonging an inevitable death..." Dr Hilary said as Kate interrupted him and argued: "But we don't do that when people want to not prolong their death?"
Dr Hilary fired back: "No, the difference between withdrawing life support and euthanasia is that euthanasia you're actively causing somebody to die.
"Whereas withdrawing life support, what you're doing is you're withdrawing the only thing that is keeping somebody alive. It's quite possible that withdrawing any medical treatment in any situation it's because that treatment is seen to be doing more harm than good.
"So having a tube down your windpipe is uncomfortable and causes ulceration and causes side effects, so if the side effects of the treatment, where there is no prospect of the underlying condition getting better, it is deemed by the medical, nursing and legal profession, that it is not in the best interest of the patient.
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV and ITV Hub.
