The parents of a 12-year-old boy at the centre of a life-support treatment dispute are preparing for a Court of Appeal hearing after a High Court judge concluded that the youngster was dead. Mrs Justice Arbuthnot recently ruled that doctors could lawfully stop providing treatment to Archie Battersbee, after considering evidence at a trial in the Family Division of the High Court in London.
Lawyers involved say they expect Court of Appeal judges to consider the case, at a hearing in London, next week. Doctors treating Archie at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, have told Mrs Justice Arbuthnot that they think the youngster is “brain-stem dead”.
They say treatment should end and think Archie should be disconnected from a ventilator. Archie’s parents, Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, of Southend, Essex, say his heart is still beating and want treatment to continue.
