UN calls for Archie’s life support care to continue
THE UN has said that Archie Battersbee must stay on life-support while it considers an 11th-hour plea by his parents.
The 12-year-old was found unconscious on April 7, and has been kept alive by a ventilator ever since.
He is in a comatose state and doctors say his brain damage – which may have been caused when an online challenge went wrong – means he will never recover and is ‘brain stem dead’.
His parents, Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, want treatment to continue. But on Monday, the Appeal Court ruled that doctors could switch his life support off.
A spokesman for Archie’s family said yesterday that after losing their court fight they made a ‘lastditch’ application to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNRPD). They are banking on a UNRPD protocol that allows ‘individuals and families’ to complain about ‘violations of disabled people’s rights’.
In a letter, UN Human Rights Treaties Branch chief Ibrahim Salama said it had ‘requested [the Government] to refrain from withdrawing life-preserving medical treatment, including mechanical ventilation and artificial nutrition and hydration, from the alleged victim while the case is under consideration by the committee’.
He added: ‘This request does not imply that any decision has been reached on the substance of the matter under consideration.’
Archie’s parents, of Southend,
Essex, went to the United Nations after losing their life-support treatment fights in the High Court and Court of Appeal.
They were then also turned down by Supreme Court justices after asking them for more time to carry on their fight to bar hospital bosses from stopping lifeter, support treatment until they had time to make an application to the United Nations.
A Supreme Court spokesman said: ‘The parents of Archie Battersbee... were seeking a stay of the Court of Appeal’s decision to allow withdrawal of life-support treatment from their child.
‘Aware of the urgency of this matthe court convened a panel of three Justices who considered submissions from the parties.
‘Having considered the careful judgment of the Court of Appeal... the panel has refused permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.’
Judges heard that Miss Dance had found Archie unconscious.
Doctors treating Archie at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, claim continued life-support treatment is not in his best interests.
Bosses at Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, have asked for a ruling on what medical decision would be in Archie’s best interests.
The hospital is now understood to be awaiting guidance from Government lawyers as to how the UN’s request may affect Archie’s treatment.
‘Aware of the urgency’