Archie Battersbee's parents plea refused by European Court
The court has refused their last appeal to prevent life-support being withdrawn
Last updated 3rd Aug 2022
The European Court of Human Rights has refused an application by the parents of 12-year-old Archie Battersbee to postpone the withdrawal of his life support.
The Southend boy has been in a coma since he was found unconscious in April and is being kept alive by a combination of medical interventions, including ventilation and drug treatments, at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London. unconscious since an incident at home back in April.
His family have been fighting a legal battle in Britain's courts ever since, calling for him to be given more time.
But on each occasion the courts have sided with doctors who argue Archie is 'brain-stem dead' and that treatment should end.
His Mum and Dad, Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, have said they will fight until the bitter end - which included a last appeal this morning to see Archie's care continue.
But this has now been refused.
In a statement, the European Court of Human Rights said it “would not interfere” with the decisions of UK courts that life-support treatment should be withdrawn from 12-year-old Archie Battersbee.
His parents submitted the application to the Strasbourg-based court just hours before Barts Health NHS Trust was initially expected to withdraw Archie’s life support.
In a statement, the court said it would not grant an interim measure to continue treatment and declared the parents’ complaints “inadmissible”.
The statement added the court would only grant such requests “on an exceptional basis” and “when the applicants would otherwise face a real risk of irreversible harm”.
Hollie Dance said earlier today she is broken, telling reporters: “I’m not going to lie, I am broke, and at some point I am going to need serious therapy, but I haven’t got time to think about me at the minute.
“This is a serious fight for my son’s life and I’m up against the biggest system and a trust that I haven’t got time to break down at the moment.”
It means the hospital treating Archie are now likely to begin working with the family to withdraw the 12 year-old's life-support system.