High Court judge rules that doctors can stop providing life-support to nine-month-old boy who suffered brain damage at birth
- A nine-month-old boy to be taken off life-support against his parent’s wishes
- High Court Judge ruled that specialists can move boy to a palliative care regime
- Doctors responsible for baby’s care said there was ‘no prospect of improvement’
- Judge said boy could not be identified and has not named the NHS trust involved
A nine-month-old baby boy with permanent and irreversible brain damage can be taken off life-support treatment against his parents’ wishes, a High Court judge has ruled.
Mrs Justice Judd says specialists can move the boy, who is attached to a ventilator, to a palliative care regime and let him die in ‘comfort and peace’.
A doctor responsible for the baby’s care said he had permanent and irreversible brain damage and told the judge that there was ‘no prospect of any improvement’.
An independent specialist said the baby was suffering and would have an ‘unbearable existence’ if he remained on a ventilator.
His parents hope he might improve and argued that he should remain on a ventilator and be given a ‘chance to survive’.
Mrs Justice Judd outlined detail of the case in a written ruling published on Wednesday, following a recent private hearing in the Family Division of the High Court.
A doctor responsible for baby’s care said he had irreversible brain damage and there was ‘no prospect of any improvement’. Pictured: Family Division of High Court, High Holborn, London
She heard that the boy had suffered a ‘severe’ brain injury during birth, as a result of a ‘severe lack of oxygen’, and had been cared for on a neonatal intensive care unit throughout his life.
Hospital bosses responsible for the boy’s care asked her to decide what moves were in his best interests.
The judge, who is based in London, said the boy could not be identified and has not named the NHS trust involved.
She said: ‘It is not hard to understand the parents’ fervent hope that (he) will defy expectations and show some improvement in his condition.
‘The medical evidence is, however, that the brain damage that he has suffered is permanent and irreversible.
Mrs Justice Judd ruled that specialists can move the boy, who is nearly nine months old and attached to a ventilator, to a palliative care regime and let him die in ‘comfort and peace’
‘There is therefore no realistic prospect of (him) ever being able to breathe without a ventilator, to feed or be fed orally, or do anything for himself at all.
‘He cannot and will not ever be able to see or hear.’
Mr Justice Judd also said continuing life-support treatment would burden the boy.
She said doctors feared that the ‘measures required’ to keep him alive cause him ‘discomfort and even pain’.
The judge added: ‘My heart goes out to these parents, who have to bear the pain and grief of what has happened to their beloved son.
‘Hard though it is, however, I am clear that the only option which is in (his) best interests is … that life sustaining treatment should be withdrawn and that (he) should be given palliative care and allowed to die in comfort and peace.’