Doctors can end life-support for baby ‘with only weeks to live’, judge rules

Doctors can withdraw life-support treatment from an eight-month-old baby whose heart failed to develop properly despite her parents’ objections, a high court judge has ruled.

Ms Justice Russell concluded that stopping “invasive” treatment would be in the baby’s best interests.

Specialists had predicted that the little girl had weeks to live. The judge said it was entirely understandable that the girl’s parents wanted her to live for as long as possible.

She made the ruling after analysing the case at a private hearing in the family division of the high court in London earlier this month. The family involved could not be identified.

The judge said officials at Great Ormond Street hospital in London had asked her to make decisions about what would be in the girl’s best interests.

She said problems had been spotted before birth. Specialists had diagnosed a condition that meant the left side of the heart failed to develop properly. They said the condition carried a “very high risk of mortality” and had recommended an abortion.

However, the judge said the infant’s parents had chosen to proceed with the pregnancy. The girl had first undergone surgery when she was two days old, she added.

Doctors had said the baby’s death was now “imminent and inevitable”. The girl’s parents accepted that she would die soon, but argued no one could be sure how soon.

They said there were “positives” in her life and argued that she should be allowed to “continue to enjoy life”.

Russell, who referred to the girl as “MK”, said she had decided it would be wrong to inflict more pain and distress on a baby who had “already suffered so much”.

“MK is very likely to feel fear and to be frightened by the procedures being carried out,” the judge added.

“The most that they might achieve is to delay her death by a very short time but in doing so she will be made to suffer very considerably when she could, and should, be allowed to end her life in as comfortable, pain-free and comforted condition as it is possible to achieve.”

Source: The Guardian