The parents of a brain-damaged baby who tried to breathe after doctors said he was dead have failed in appeal bids after losing the latest stage of a life-support treatment fight and are “devastated”, a lawyer has said. A High Court judge recently ruled that ending life-support treatment is lawful and in the five-month-old boy’s best interests.
Mr Justice Poole, who reconsidered evidence at the latest in a series of hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London, said treatment is “futile”. Solicitor Amy Rowe, who represents the couple and works for law firm Dawson Cornwell, said appeal judges refused to overturn Mr Justice Poole’s decision.
The couple made written applications to the Court of Appeal in London and the European Court of Human Rights in France, but both bids had been rejected, Ms Rowe said. She told the PA news agency: “My clients and their family are understandably devastated.”
