Good news from England:

The parents of a terminally ill 18-month-old boy yesterday won a landmark ruling when a high court judge stopped doctors withdrawing life support. Mr Justice Holman refused to give the NHS trust caring for the boy a declaration that it would be lawful and in his best interests to take him off the ventilator that is keeping him alive.

The case is the first in which the court has been asked to sanction the withdrawal of treatment from a child assumed to have normal brain function and awareness.

This is good news in so many ways, for the parents and for society in general. This case just set precedence in England for the sustaining of life and for parent’s rights. From the comments of the judge it appears that he has a real understanding of the value of life even though it’s being lived outside the norm:

The judge said he accepted that MB’s life was “helpless and sad” with “almost relentless discomfort, periods of distress and relatively short episodes of pain”. But he had to proceed on the basis that MB had the cognition of a normal 18-month-old, that he continued to have a relationship with his family and to gain pleasure from touch, sight and sound. Those benefits were “precious and real” and were the only benefits the child was “destined to gain from his life”.

It wasn’t 100% good news though, the doctor order that no extraordinary care should be given, which could open the door to the denial of help if the boy develops the need for any type of medical care.
Read the rest here.