Your daughter must be left to die, judge tells a family
Parents’ despair over the woman they claim can still communicate
A FAMILY told of their despair last night after a High Court judge ruled that a terminally-ill woman should be allowed to die.
In a ruling that caused disbelief, Mr Justice Coleridge said medical staff could withhold life- saving treatment that would keep Eileen Doran alive.
The 31- year- old has a rare brain disease which doctors say has left her in a vegetative state with no chance of recovery. Specialists say they should not have to treat her in an emergency.
But her family have argued that she should be kept alive and that, even though she is desperately ill, she has been able to communicate with them by blinking and has even said ‘ daddy’.
Yesterday Mr Justice Coleridge said Miss Doran – whose brother died of the same brain disease, mitochondria cytopathy – should be allowed to die ‘peacefully and with dignity’.
He said he had heard ‘ heart-rending’ evidence from the family that they were convinced she was not brain dead, as doctors have diagnosed, but that he had to accept the overwhelming
over the plight of Charlotte Wyatt, evidence.
the profoundly disabled two-yearold.
The judge asked: ‘ Are there any advantages to this patient in this
Her parents are battling in the condition in attempting by the
High Court to lift an order which use of artificial and very invasive
permits doctors to withhold lifesaving procedures to prolong her survival treatment from Charlotte if beyond that which will naturally
it is in her best interests. occur? I can honestly answer that
Miss Doran’s father, Peter, 53, question by saying that I can
said the stress of seeing his think of none.’
daughter’s plight, and of the court He said it was inevitable that
battle, had left the family ‘cracking Miss Doran, who is being treated up’. at Walton Neurological Centre in
‘ She’s just a young girl, they Liverpool, would die within a relatively
shouldn’t give up on her,’ he said. short time.
‘ My daughter was walking and
Speaking after the judgment, her
talking not long ago. mother Margaret, 49, from Liverpool,
‘ We are very upset about this said that to stop treating her
decision. We are still praying for a daughter was tantamount to murder.
miracle.’ ‘I just feel it is murder,’ said
Miss Doran began suffering from Mrs Doran. ‘ They are murdering
fits and breathing problems last my daughter.
December. She was taken for tests
‘ We are all hysterical over this,
and, in February, was put on a but it is not the end. We are going
drug to stop the seizures. Shortly to try to appeal, those doctors will
after, she lost consciousness and not get away with this.’
has never recovered.
The case comes amid the debate
Doctors initially gave her just a week to live but her family, who saw their son Mileen die from the same disease a week before his 17th birthday in 2003, have never stopped hoping she might recover.
They claim that she can still communicate from her hospital bed. Earlier this year she was heard to cry out ‘ daddy’ and the family says she can blink or move her leg to indicate that she can hear them.
But in his ruling yesterday, Mr Justice Coleridge said that ‘a few extra months’ would not give any extra benefit to Miss Doran.
He continued: ‘In my judgment she should be allowed as dignified a passing as is achievable.’
He said that, from the family’s point of view, every extra day was worth fighting for. ‘ Given what they have had to face in the past few years, no one can have anything but the profoundest sympathy for them in their hope for the arrival of a miracle.
‘ But my focus must be on the patient’s best interests and not on the family’s best interests.’
The judge said Eileen was suffering from ‘ the most horrible of genetic neurological illnesses’ which has attacked her brain and caused her to have continuous epileptic seizures without recovery in between.
He said all the medical experts say she has no awareness of any kind and there was no prospect of recovery.
The judge said that doctors do not doubt the family had seen movements when they visited Eileen, but these were reflex actions and not true signs of awareness.
‘The simple appalling fact about this family is that they have been here before. Miss Doran’s brother died at the age of 17 from the selfsame genetic condition a little over two years ago,’ the judge continued.
‘ Just to make matters even worse a sister also died prematurely in a road accident. So this is an especially desperate situation which faces this family.
‘To say their evidence was heartrending is an understatement.’
But, allowing doctors not to administer treatment, he said: ‘Some might say that her dignity has already been severely compromised by the progress and incidence of this awful disease.
‘ To subject her body to further grossly invasive procedure can only further detract from her dignity.’
The official solicitor, acting for Miss Doran, who is from an Irish travelling family, agreed with the declaration, which has immediate effect.
b.hale@dailymail.co.uk