Supreme Court rejects Archie parents’ request to intervene

THE parents of the 12-year-old boy left in a coma after suffering brain damage have failed to persuade the Supreme Court to intervene in a life-support treatment battle.

Archie Battersbee was found unconscious at his home in Southend, Essex, on April 7.

His mother and father, Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, had asked Supreme Court justices to give them more time to carry on their fight.

But yesterday three justices refused their application, with a Supreme Court spokesman saying: “Having considered the careful judgment of the Court of Appeal... the panel has refused permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.”

Responding to the news, Ms Dance said: “Words cannot describe how devastated we are. The pressure put on us from the beginning to rush through the process of ending Archie’s life has been disgraceful.

“All we have ever asked for is for more time. The urgency from the hospital and the courts is unexplained when other parties have been happy for us to have more time.”

She added: “We will continue fighting for Archie and will not give up.”

Ms Dance and Mr Battersbee want the United Nations to consider the case after losing life-support treatment fights in the High Court and Court of Appeal in London.

They wanted Supreme Court justices to bar hospital bosses from stopping life-support treatment until they have had time to make an application to the UN, and made a written application.

Archie’s parents say the UN has a protocol that allows “individuals and families” to make complaints about violations of disabled people’s rights.

They say the UN could ask the UK Government to delay the withdrawal of life support to Archie while a complaint is investigated.

But three Court of Appeal judges on Monday upheld a ruling by a High Court judge who had decided that doctors could lawfully stop treating Archie.

Doctors treating Archie at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, think he is brain-stem dead and say continued life-support treatment is not in his best interests.

Two judges in separate hearings at the High Court ruled that Archie’s life support could lawfully end.

‘The pressure put on us from the start to rush through the process of ending Archie’s life has been disgraceful’