The family of a comatose boy who fought to prevent doctors from ending his life-support treatment have filed legal action seeking permission to move their son from a London hospital to a hospice. Archie Battersbee’s parents announced the move after the European Court of Human Rights late on Wednesday rejected a request to intervene in the case following a series of rulings by British courts that backed doctors who said further treatment was not in the 12-year-old’s best interests. he is brain dead. The family are now seeking permission to move Archie from the Royal London Hospital in east London to a hospice. They say the hospital told them life support would be withdrawn at 11am on Thursday unless a legal challenge to the hospice move was filed by 9am “I’d like him out of here as quickly as possible, really, and to a quiet hospice to say goodbye and spend time with his family without the noise and chaos,” his mother, Holly Dance, told the BBC. The row is the latest UK case to pit doctors’ judgment against families’ wishes. It is common for the British courts to intervene when parents and doctors disagree about a child’s treatment. In such cases, the best interests of the child override the parents’ right to decide what they believe is best for their offspring. Archie was found unconscious at home with a ligature over his head on April 7. His parents believe he may have taken part in an online challenge gone wrong. Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the Royal London Hospital, said it understood the motivation behind the family’s request, but a previous High Court ruling requires Archie to remain in hospital until his treatment is finished. The boy’s condition is so unstable that moving him would accelerate the deterioration of his condition, the trust said. “As directed by the courts, we will work with the family to prepare for withdrawal of treatment but will not make any changes to Archie’s care until the outstanding legal issues are resolved,” said Alistair Chesser, the trust’s chief medical officer. in a statement. Archie’s parents took their campaign to extend his treatment all the way to the UK High Court. After exhausting their legal options in Britain, they asked the European Court of Human Rights to intervene. The ECtHR said late on Wednesday that it would not “interfere with the decisions of national courts to allow the withdrawal of (Archie)’s life-sustaining treatment”.
