Don’t turn off ventilator, Court rules
March 23, 2006
LONDON, England–The parents of an 18-month-old boy with a terminal muscle-wasting disease won a legal battle on March 15. The High Court ruled that doctors will not turn off the ventilator that keeps him alive.
Doctors argued that the child, who suffers from severe spinal muscular atrophy, had an “intolerable” life. He cannot breathe for himself, has to be fed through a tube, and can only move his eyebrows, feet, and fingers very slightly. However, his parents said he could still enjoy the company of his family and was not mentally impaired.
Justice James Holman described the life of the boy, who is expected to die within a year, as “helpless and sad” but he considered it in the boy’s best interest to continue with medical care. The case was believed to be the first in which doctors had asked to allow a patient who is not in a persistent vegetative state to die.
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