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.
