Published 4 November 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4573
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4573

News

Parents go to court over whether baby son should be allowed to die

Clare Dyer

1 BMJ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A seriously ill, 13 month old boy is at the centre of a High Court battle between his parents over whether he should be allowed to die.

An NHS trust is seeking permission from the High Court in London to take the boy, known as RB, off the ventilator that is keeping him alive. His mother supports the move, arguing that her son’s life is "intolerable," but his father maintains that RB can see, hear, feel, and recognise his parents and should be allowed to go on living.

RB, who has been in hospital since birth, has congenital myasthenia syndrome, a rare neuromuscular condition that prevents him breathing on his own and severely restricts his power to move his limbs. His parents, who are in their 20s, are said to be "amicably separated." To protect their confidentiality none of the parties to the court action, including the trust and the . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Father drops opposition to allow his baby son to die after six days of evidence in court
Clare Dyer
BMJ 2009 339: b4704. [Extract] [Full Text]

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ