The funeral of 12-year-old Archie Battersbee, who was at the centre of a life-support treatment fight, will take place next month, a family spokesman has said. A judge based in the Family Division of the High Court in London ruled in July that doctors could lawfully stop providing life-support treatment to the youngster, who suffered brain damage in an incident at his home in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, in April.
Archie died recently after his mother, Hollie Dance, and father, Paul Battersbee, failed in bids to overturn Mr Justice Hayden’s ruling. The family have been supported by a campaign group called the Christian Legal Centre.
A spokesman for the centre said on Thursday that Archie’s funeral will take place at St Mary’s Church in Prittlewell, Southend, on September 13.
Southend West Conservative MP Anna Firth has said she wants to discuss concerns over Archie’s case with the Health Secretary. She told the PA news agency that she has asked Steve Barclay if he will meet her and Archie’s mother.
Judges heard that Ms Dance found Archie unconscious with a ligature over his head on April 7. She thinks he might have been taking part in an online challenge. The youngster did not regain consciousness.
Doctors treating Archie at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, thought he was brain-stem dead and said continued life-support treatment was not in his best interests. Bosses at the hospital’s governing trust, Barts Health NHS Trust, had asked for decisions on what medical moves were in Archie’s best interests.
A High Court judge, Mrs Justice Arbuthnot, initially considered the case and concluded that Archie was dead. But Court of Appeal judges upheld a challenge by his parents against decisions taken by Mrs Justice Arbuthnot and said the evidence should be reviewed by a different High Court judge, Mr Justice Hayden.
He ruled after a further hearing that ending treatment would be in Archie’s best interests.
