The Court of Appeals meets for a last-minute hearing in the case of Archie Battersbee, the 12-year-old Englishman in a coma for months after being found unconscious at home on April 7, just hours before London doctors Royal Hospital cut off the boy’s vital assisted ventilation.
Great Britain, the Court of Appeal to doctors: “Unplug the 12-year-old in a coma”. The mother objects: “I am devastated”. The father has a heart attack
As stated on the website of the Bbcthe government has asked the judges to urgently consider the request of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNRPD) to continue treating the 12-year-old as it examines the case.
Last week, the High Court, which had rejected the appeal of Archie’s parents against the decision to stop the treatments that keep their son alive, had however granted a 48-hour postponement to the separation of artificial ventilation precisely to allow an appeal. to the European Court of Human Rights. In fact, according to the family, the interruption of treatment would violate the UK’s obligations under international human rights law.
The decision to pull the plug, validated in three different degrees by UK justice against all appeals and vibrant parental opposition, if there are no last minute changes, must be put into effect at 2pm this afternoon, 3pm in Italy.
Archie’s accident
It is not yet clear what happened to the 12-year-old. Among the hypotheses, that of an online challenge. They found him hanging from a rope in time for him not to die but too late to really save him. The lack of oxygen caused him irreparable brain damage. Immediately after being found unconscious by his family, Archie was immediately transported to the Royal London Hospital, but his condition immediately appeared desperate. Brain activity was minimized and, since then, Archie has been kept alive thanks to artificial ventilation. Since then, he has never regained consciousness.
The Royal Hospital, as had already happened in similar cases, went to the Court of Justice. The judges, on the basis of the child best interest criterion, had authorized the hospital to stop artificial respiration, believing that the hopes of recovery were nil.