European court refuses to hear UK boy’s life-support case
By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — The European Court of Human Rights has refused a request from the family of a comatose British boy to intervene and prevent his life-support treatment being ended. Archie Battersbee was found unconscious at home on April 7. Doctors believe he is brain-stem dead and say continued life-support treatment is not in his best interests. His parents have fought unsuccessfully to get British courts to block the Royal London Hospital turning off the boy’s ventilator and on Wednesday they appealed to the European court. But the Strasbourg-based court said it would not “interfere with the decisions of the national courts” that Archie’s treatment should end.
