LONDON, Aug 25: The parents of gravely ill baby Charlotte Wyatt lost their latest court appeal on Thursday in their battle to force doctors to do all they can to keep their daughter alive.
Darren Wyatt, 33, and his wife Debbie, 24, have fought an almost year-long legal campaign for a court order that would force doctors to do their best to save the life of 22-month-old Charlotte if she became critically ill.
While the judges in Thursday’s case ruled there was nothing wrong with the original verdict that it was not in Charlotte’s best interests to try to keep her alive, they did say a review of the whole case should be held shortly.
The courts have consistently ruled that it would not be right to attempt aggressive invasive treatment to keep Charlotte alive in the event of respiratory collapse.
Three of the country’s most senior judges said on Thursday they would uphold the original decision but said a review of the case would be brought forward from October to September.
Lord Justice Laws, who announced that the court would be ‘accelerating’ the next hearing, described it as ‘an anxiously important case’.
However he said that the court’s decision was that the judge who made the original order had ‘made no error of law’.
Charlotte was born three months prematurely, with a birth weight of 458 grams.
Doctors said she had a terrible quality of life, with ‘no feelings other than continuing pain’. —Reuters
