Withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment

Raqeeb (by her Litigation Friend XX) v Barts NHS Foundation Trust & (1) Shalina Begum [2019] EWHC 2531 (Admin); [2019] Med LR 581

It was decided in a recent case that it would be in the best interests of a five-year-old child for life-sustaining treatment to continue, as there was no continued justification for her doctors refusing to agree to her transferring to an Italian hospital for palliative care. The child had suffered severe irreversible brain damage. In reaching the decision, the court gave guidance on the correct course to be taken by doctors in England and Wales when they faced a best interests dispute and request by parents for the transfer of their child for medical treatment in another member state pursuant to Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) art 56.