A judge at the High Court in London has ruled that the family of a 12-year-old boy who suffered a brain injury cannot move him from hospital to a hospice.

The family of Archie Battersbee, who has been in a deep coma since sustaining the injury, had applied to the High Court after the European Court of Human Rights refused their request to intervene.

The family had sought a delay in the withdrawal of treatment in order to transfer him from the Royal London Hospital to a hospice.

“I am satisfied that when looking at the balancing exercise again, his best interests remain as set out on 15 July 2022, that he should remain at the hospital when treatment is withdrawn,” Mrs Justice Theis ruled.

Risks

The judge added that the arrangements at the hospital ensure that the boy’s best interest “would remain the focus of the final arrangements to enable him peacefully and privately to die in the embrace of the family he loved”.

The consultant involved in the treatment told the court that the risks of a transfer from hospital to a hospice were “major and unpredictable”.

The boy’s parents had said that they were prepared to take the risks involved in preference to remaining in the hospital – including the risk of dying in transit.