Dance & Battersbee (respondents/appellants) v Barts Health NHS Trust (applicant/respondent)
Wednesday 29 June 2022
This is an appeal against the decision of Arbuthnot J, sitting in the Family Division of the High Court dated 13 June 2022 and a renewed application for permission to appeal on the further grounds that were refused by Arbuthnot J on the 20 June. The applicant parents also seek permission to to appeal the decision to refuse the parents application to rely upon expert evidence.
The case involves Archie Battersbee. Barts Health NHS Trust had made two applications in relation to Archie. The was is for the Court to make a declaration that Archie is brain stem dead and that he was dead on a particular date and second, if the Court was unable to make that finding, then the Court should consider whether it is lawful and in Archie’s best interests to continue to receive mechanical ventilation.
Arbuthnot J found that Archie died at noon on 31st May 2022, which was shortly after the MRI scans were taken that day and that irreversible cessation of brain stem function has been conclusively established. In addition, it was found that on balance, that the burdens of the treatment and Archie’s condition along with the total lack of a prospect of recovery outweigh Archie’s Christian beliefs and the benefits to him of a continuing life on mechanical ventilation for a few more weeks or months with all the other procedures that that entailed.
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