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/ 02:00 pm (CNA).- Bioethicists on Thursday criticized an English court ruling that life-sustaining treatment can be withdrawn from a five-year-old girl against her mother’s wishes.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
Pippa Knight
A single mother who wants specialists to keep treating her brain-damaged daughter is taking her fight to the Court of Appeal.
Paula Parfitt, 41, of Strood, Kent, lost the first round earlier this month when a High Court judge ruled that five-year-old Pippa Knight should be allowed to die.
She has asked appeal court judges to overturn Mr Justice Poole’s ruling.
Ms Parfitt said she was devastated by the decision and launched an appeal for money to fund a challenge.
Campaign group the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children says it has agreed to pay for lawyers to represent Ms Parfitt.
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Updated: 14:14, 21 January 2021
The mum of a brain-damaged five-year-old, told her daughter should be allowed to die, wept tears of joy as she was told a pro-life group has given its financial backing in a last gasp £100,000 court battle.
Pippa Knight has been in hospital for two years and is in a vegetative state. Her mum Paula Parfitt, 41,from Strood, has been at her bedside at the Evelina Children s Hospital in London, where she is being treated.
Five-year-old Pippa is being cared for in a London hospital. Pictures supplied on behalf of SPUC
Medics went to court in December seeking permission to cease treating her and won the backing of Mr Justice Poole after a trial in the Family Division of the High Court in London.
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