Before I start, I would like to say I don't mean to offend anyone at all and have thought very hard about what to write and how to write it, as delicately as possible with understanding that parents of the named children may read this. My post here today is solely about wanting to understand better current News topics specifically why decisions over children can be taken out of parents hands.
I remember a couple of years back, the devastating case of Charlie Gard and the Courts ruled that his life support could be turn off as Medicine was unable to help him, his parents of course devastated appealed I believe but this was upheld at the Court of Appeal and if I remember correctly, in the end his parents agreed for the life support to be turned off. Recently, the case of Archie Battersbee has got me curious again, wanting to understand more - being a student of Law, this sort of things are not really covered at University.
My questions are:
Why can the Courts take over and decide that a life support machine can be turned off? - My understanding is that Judges have been presented with Medical evidence to show that there is no activity in the brain so keeping them on life support would just be aiding them to breathe but unlikely they will regain consciousness again.
Why does this even go to Court - why can't the Doctor's just turn it off? I would imagine the Doctors gets Courts involved to make a decision as they need permission to turn off the life support even if the parents refuse without any repercussions to them?
Can the life support of a Child, still be turned off if the parent(s) vigorously disagree until the very end, even if a date has been provided by the Courts?
(I understand the above Q's may be slightly repetitive in their own way, sorry!)
I remember in the case of Charlie Gard, I was listening to BBC London on the Radio and someone called in to explain the situation during a chat with Vanessa - I don't remember too much but they said something along the line of, "children belong to the state" does anyone know what this may mean or what they may be referring to?