Peer-Reviewed Journal Details
Mandatory Fields
Barry Lyons and Mary Donnelly
2023
April
Medical law international
A Different Kind of Death? Barts NHS Trust v Dance and Battersbee
Published
()
Optional Fields
Brainstem death; CRPD; Best interests
23
2
159
173
The case of Archie Battersbee, a 12-year-old boy who suffered a catastrophic hypoxic brain injury, was the subject of several Family Division and Appeal Court hearings between April and August 2022. During the protracted legal process, appeals were made by the family to the Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights, and the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee). These were unsuccessful in achieving a stay on the withdrawal of life-sustaining interventions, whose continuance the Family Division of the High Court had found not to be in Archie’s best interests. This commentary focuses on two novel aspects of the proceedings: the Court of Appeal’s overturning of Arbuthnot J’s conclusion that Archie was brainstem dead, and the CRPD Committee’s intervention in response to the family’s appeal.
https://doi.org/10.1177/09685332231159363
Grant Details