Archie Battersbee’s parents have been told they can’t challenge a High Court ruling denying their son’s transfer to a hospice to die.
However, they now intend to carry on their fight by taking the dispute to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)
The 12-year-old boy’s parents applied to the Court of Appeal today, in an attempt to get him out of Royal London Hospital.
His mum Hollie Dance, said the family should be allowed to choose where he spent his ‘final moments’ and say they have ‘no privacy’ where he is now.
It came after they lost a High Court bid to have him moved to a hospice before his life-sustaining treatment is withdrawn.
But medical experts said there was ‘significant risk’ he could die during the journey.
The Court of Appeal confirmed this evening, shortly after 6.30pm, that permission to appeal had been refused.
His parents have fought a long-running legal battle over the withdrawal of his treatment, which ultimately failed on Wednesday when the European Court of Human Rights refused to intervene.
Their focus then shifted to trying to get their son moved to a hospice, but in a ruling at the High Court this morning, Mrs Justice Theis concluded it was not in Archie’s best interests to be moved.
Now the family are going back to the ECHR, this time to challenge the High Court’s ruling this morning.
They argue there has been a violation of articles six and eight of the European Convention on Human Rights, campaign group Christian Concern said.
Article six is the right to a fair trial and article eight is the right to respect for private and family life.
Christian Concern said Archie’s family have been told his life-sustaining treatment will be withdrawn from 10am tomorrow.
But Barts Health NHS Trust has said its position remains the same in that no changes will be made to Archie’s care ‘until the outstanding legal issues are resolved’.
Archie has been in hospital after being found unconscious by his mother in April at their family home in Southend, Essex.
His mum, Hollie Dance, believes he sustained his brain injury after taking part in an online challenge.
Archie is being kept alive by a combination of medical interventions, including ventilation and drug treatments, at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London.
Doctors treating the boy believe he is ‘brain-stem dead’ and will not recover, but his parents disagree.
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