After yet another legal defeat, life support is about to be shut down in the case of the terminally ill Archie. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which the parents had brought in, said on Friday evening that the request to transfer Archie to a hospice does not fall within its jurisdiction.
A spokesman for the Christian organization Christian Concern, which supports Archie’s family, told Sky television: “All legal avenues have been exhausted. The family is devastated and is spending a lot of time with Archie.”
The Court of Appeal in London on Friday evening rejected an application by the family to have the terminally ill Archie transferred from a hospital to a hospice. The devices that are currently keeping the boy alive should be switched off on Saturday morning.
Archie has been in a coma since April. He suffered serious brain injuries in an accident at home in Southend-on-Sea, possibly during an internet dare. The treating doctors see no chance of recovery.
The UK’s highest court had backed the doctors’ decision to let Archie die. It is in the boy’s best interest. A final appeal by the parents to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg was also unsuccessful.
Archie’s parents then tried to have Archie transferred to a hospice so that their son could spend his final hours in a quieter, more peaceful environment. However, the hospital refused because of his unstable condition. The Court of Appeal in London also confirmed this decision: It is in Archie’s best interest that the life-support measures are stopped in the hospital instead of in another environment, the judge said there on Friday afternoon.
