The
British Court of Appeal
has set for Tuesday 2 August at noon the implementation of
the green
light at the
end of the life support
to
Archie Battersbee
, the 12-year-old Englishman in a coma for months after being found unconscious at home on April 7 last and hospitalized since then in the London Royal Hospital.
The
decision
, already authorized in three levels of judgment by the British justice, is strongly
opposed by the child's parents
,
Hollie
and
Paul
, who still believe in a possible awakening despite the expectations of London doctors and who had returned to the Court to allow an examination of the case by
the UN Committee
for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNRPD).
Committee that has accepted in recent days to evaluate the urgent appeal presented by the family;
and who, through the British government, had in turn urged the judges to freeze the proceedings pending their own ruling.
However, the Court has limited itself to postponing the implementation of the decision to pull the plug from this afternoon, as originally planned, to tomorrow.
An indication immediately contested by the parents, after their lawyer had feared it as a potential "
violation of international law
".
The panel called to rule on the petition - formed by Judge Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the family law section of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, and by colleagues Eleanor King and Andrew Moylan - has flatly dismissed the request, denying
no judicial role in
the United Kingdom
at the UN Committee for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Unrpd).
And it granted mother Hollie and father Paul less than 24 hours to now verify the possible admissibility of the case at recognized international judicial institutions (such as the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which has already in the past rejected similar appeals of the families);
or else let the
doctors
proceed to
interrupt the assisted ventilation
that keeps Archie alive.
In the device, Sir Andrew reiterated the endorsement of British justice for the diagnosis of
probable death of brain cells
long advanced by the doctors who are treating the child.
"Every day he continues to receive vital treatment" is
one more day of agony
, "contrary" to what the Court has established as "his best interest," continued the high magistrate, ruling out further postponements at the state: "even short".
Not without underlining that the UNRPD is the result of a treaty that "has no legal personality" and is not entitled to be involved "in the decision-making process as it is not subject to law in the United Kingdom".