Hospital May Withhold Treatment From Severely Disabled Boy

The President of the High Court has ruled that a six-year-old boy with severe brain injuries should not be resuscitated if his condition worsens.

Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns said he believed the ventilation of the boy in the circumstances of this case would involve undue pain and suffering for him.

The boy suffers from permanent disabilities after almost drowning in an accident when he was 22 months old. He was left severely disabled with spastic quadriplegia. He is also blind and fed through a tube with extensive irreparable brain damage.

The boys father suggested fetal stem cell treatment, however Justice Kearns noted it is illegal in Ireland and in the US.

He called it a tragic case but the medical evidence was unanimous that re-ventilating him if his condition deteriorated would not be in his best interests.

(CD/GK)