Baby Gard suffered an overwhelming and life threating condition. The Hospital considered that his welfare wa sbest served by withdrawal of life support. His parents could not agree. The Hospital now sought a declaration from the court as to the baby’s best interests.
Held: A declaration was made that the Hospital may lawfully withdraw all treatment, save for palliative care, to permit Charlie to die with dignity: ‘Charlie suffers from the RRM2B mutation of MDDS. No one in the world has ever treated this form of MDDS with nucleoside therapy, although patients with a different strain, TK2, have received nucleoside therapy with some recorded benefit. In mouse models, the benefit to TK2 patients was put at about 4% of life expectancy. There is no evidence that nucleoside therapy can cross the blood/brain barrier which it must do to treat RRM2B, although the US doctor expressed the hope that it might cross that barrier.
There is unanimity among the experts from whom I have heard that nucleoside therapy cannot reverse structural brain damage. I dare say that medical science may benefit objectively from the experiment, but experimentation cannot be in Charlie’s best interests unless there is a prospect of benefit for him.’
Judges:
Francis J
Citations:
[2017] EWHC 972 (Fam)
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Wyatt and Another v Portsmouth Hospital NHS and Another CA 12-Oct-2005
The appellants’ daughter had been born with very severe disabilities. Her doctors obtained an order allowing them a discretion not to ventilate her to keep her alive if necessary. She had improved, but the family now sought leave to appeal an order . .
Cited by:
Cited – Re Gard (A Child) FD 24-Jul-2017
The baby boy suffered life threatening conditions. Doctors at the hospital sought directions to allow the withdrawal of life support. His parents wanted him to be given the chance of experimental treatment in the US. In April a declaration had been . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Children, Health
Updated: 27 March 2022; Ref: scu.588142