Credit: Chodrya Mike/Shutterstock.
CNA Staff, Feb 5, 2021 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- Bioethicists on Thursday criticized an English court ruling that life-sustaining treatment can be withdrawn from a five-year-old girl against her mother’s wishes.
In a Feb. 4 statement, the Anscombe Bioethics Centre in Oxford, England, described the ethical reasoning behind the High Court decision as “deeply flawed.”
A judge issued the ruling on Jan. 8 after specialists at a children’s hospital in London said that life-support treatment should end for Pippa Knight, who is in a vegetative state after suffering brain damage.
The BBC reported on Jan. 27 that the girl’s mother, Paula Parfitt, would appeal against the decision with financial backing from the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC).
By Press Association 2021
Isaiah Haastrup with his aunt, Dahlia Thomas
Hospital bosses have apologised to the parents of a boy who died after suffering brain damage during his birth, and said improvements have since been made to maternity services.
Isaiah Haastrup, who was left severely disabled, died when he was 12 months old, in March 2018, after his parents became embroiled in a High Court life-support treatment fight.
A judge gave doctors permission to provide only palliative care – against the wishes of his father, Lanre Haastrup, and mother, Takesha Thomas.
Specialists treating Isaiah at King’s College Hospital in London had told Mr Justice MacDonald that providing further intensive care treatment was futile and not in his best interests.
Hospital bosses have admitted liability for “events surrounding the birth” of a 12-month-old boy from south east London who died after a High Court treatment battle, a judge has been told. Isaiah Haastrup, who suffered brain damage at birth and was severely disabled, died in March 2018 after a High Court judge gave doctors permission to provide only palliative care – against the wishes of his father, Lanre Haastrup, and mother, Takesha Thomas, both from Peckham. Specialists treating Isaiah at King’s College Hospital in south London had told Mr Justice MacDonald that providing further intensive care treatment was futile and not in his best interests.
A Belarusian model who claims her Texan tycoon ex-husband still owes her £5.7million is preparing for another round of their long-running High Court battle.
Alesia Vladimirovna Haskell, 40, began legal action against Preston Haskell IV, 54, in 2016 after their marriage collapsed due to his unfaithfulness and abuse of cocaine and alcohol , a top family judge said. US-born Mr Haskell was ordered to shell out about £5.7million to the mother of his three children, paid in installments, in early 2020.
Mr Haskell claimed at the time that he had nothing to give his ex-wife as he owed £55million to others - and was only getting by due to bail-outs from his super-rich father.