Baby at centre of legal battle can have life support removed, says judge

A High Court judge has ruled that a 4 month old baby at the centre of a legal battle between his parents and an NHS trust over whether to keep him on life support is brainstem dead and can legally have his ventilation withdrawn.1

Courts usually weigh up the best interests of brain damaged babies to decide whether to withdraw treatment. But Mrs Justice Lieven held that, once she had decided that Midrar Namiq (also known as Midrar Ali) was brainstem dead, there was no need to go on to consider his best interests.

“If a patient is brainstem dead then there are no best interests to consider,” she said. “Once those criteria are met the patient has irreversibly lost whatever one might define as life.” She granted Manchester …