The Daily TelegraphJudith Woods until recently said she knew nothing about Archie Battersbee, a "lively 12-year-old" and promising gymnast. That all changed on April 7th of this year when his mother found him unconscious with a knot tied around his neck at his home in Southend, Essex. At the Royal London Hospital, he was put on a respirator, but eventually doctors decided he had suffered a devastating "irreversible brain stem injury" and switched off the respirator. concluded that it was in his "best interests." His devastated parents, Holly Dance and Paul Batterbee, were "fiercely opposed" and pursued the matter through the courts. was defeated last week, said David Collins in the Sunday Times, and on August 6, Archie's life support was switched. off. This "heartbreak" has spread across mainstream and social media, Rachel Clark said in The Guardian. And amidst the sounds and fury, some aspects of it have been misreported. Suffering brainstem death is not the same as being in a coma or vegetative state from which there is a chance of recovery.Brain death A person with the condition never regains the automatic functions that keep us alive, including breathing. But for parents, seeing their child on a mechanical ventilator can be disconcerting, with chests bobbing as if they were asleep and being told there is no hope. .
Archie's case was further complicated by the fact that a formal brain death test was not possible due to his injuries. However, scans showed no blood flow to his brainstem. necrosis began. The stem had been extruded from the skull into the spinal cord. He was "a child with no hope of recovery."
All right, said Dominic Lawson in theDaily Mail. But what bothers me is the fact that the court did not even allow his parents to move him to hospice to die.It is true that under English law the interests of the child come first. and Archie may have died in transit.However, the court agreed that he felt nothing.In this situation, can't the wishes of the parents be taken into account? Amazingly, such cases where parents and doctors cannot agree on a course of action are rare. But if anything comes out of Archie's story, let's hope it's an arbitration system. That way, in the future, the parties involved will avoid court battles.
