Father withdraws opposition in Baby RB Right-To-Die trial

November 10, 2009 by Baby Chums
Filed under: News

Baby RB’s father has withdrawn his opposition to the mother’s High Court plea for the child’s life support machine to be turned off.

The couple, who separated amicably, had asked the High Court to make the decision over whether the baby should be kept alive.

However, today the father unexpectedly withdrew his opposition, meaning the ventilator keeping the baby alive will now be switched off.

Mr Justice McFarlane said it was a “sad but in my view inevitable outcome”.

It was the “only tenable one for RB”.

As the judge summarized the tragic case, both parents wept and the mother at one point left the court in tears but returned to hear his tribute to them and the doctors and nurses caring for their son.

The hospital authority had sought a court order allowing RB to die with dignity rather than continuing to live what doctors described as a “miserable and pitiful” existence.

The court heard from counsel that the father, KM, had come to the decision “after a very great deal of thought after hearing all the evidence as it has developed in this case”.

After being told that all the parties were now in agreement about the course to be taken, the judge said: “It is appropriate for me to say one or two words, not in judgment, but in endorsement of this sad but, in my view, inevitable outcome.”

He said: “It is, I suspect, impossible for those of us to whom such an event has not happened to do more than guess at the impact of it upon these two young parents.

“In one moment all of the hopes and dreams that they will have had for their expected baby will have been dashed and replaced with a life characterized by worry, stress, exhaustion, confusion and no doubt great sadness.”

He said: “During the past 13 months both KM and AB have discharged their responsibility to their son in a manner which has been described by all who have seen it in superlative terms.”

The judge went on: “It is a fact that K and A have spent the most part of each and every day of the last 13 months at RB’s bedside, doing what they can to care for him and, when the opportunity arises, to interest and stimulate him, seizing upon any sign of a spark and trying to develop it into something more.

“They have put their own adult lives on hold. The stress has been immense, it has cost them their relationship, but still they work together and do what they can to support their son.

“When faced with the awfulness of the situation in which they found themselves, these two young people have stepped up to the plate and discharged the responsibility that life had thrust upon them by each showing 100% commitment to their child in a manner which can only command profound respect and admiration.”

The move comes a day after Professor Andrew Bush of paediatric respirology at Imperial College London, said a mother’s wishes should outweigh those of a father.

Prof Bush told the court: “Not to trivialize the views of the father, but most paediatricians would find it very, very difficult to overrule a mother.”

Baby RB suffers from congenital myasthenic syndrome, in which the signal between the nerves and the muscles is impaired, making it difficult to move. His brain functions normally, but he cannot communicate or interact with his parents.