Baby Alfie’s life support to be stopped

BrAIN-damaged toddler Alfie evans will have his treatment withdrawn and be allowed to die, a High Court judge has ruled.

Mr Justice Hayden yesterday endorsed an end-of-life care plan for the 23-monthold, dashing the last hopes of parents Tom evans and Kate James.

The hearing was the last stage in a desperate legal battle for Alfie’s parents, from Liverpool, that also involved the Court of Appeal, supreme Court and european Court of Human rights. The courts have heard that Alfie has a degenerative neurological condition and is in a ‘semi-vegetative state’. But Miss James and Mr evans, who are in their 20s, had insisted their son is responding to treatment and wanted it continued.

yesterday, after all their appeals had been dismissed, Mr Justice Hayden said he accepted medical evidence which showed further treatment for Alfie was futile. He endorsed a plan, put forward by Alfie’s doctors, for withdrawing life support. It was ruled the details, including the day treatment is halted, could not be made public. It is understood that after Alfie’s ventilator is turned off, his death could follow within minutes.

Mr Justice Hayden said: ‘By the time I came to conclude the case, the terrible reality is that almost the entirety of Alfie’s brain had been eroded, leaving only water and cerebral spinal fluid.’

Alfie’s parents, who did not attend the hearing, were not available for comment.