An article on the UK situation I mentioned earlier http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/Times/frontpage.html?999 Doctors who wanted to let child die did not act illegally BY FRANCES GIBB, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT A MOTHER failed yesterday to obtain a declaration that doctors had acted illegally in refusing to try to keep alive her 12-year-old son. They had acted against her wishes and without the authority of the courts, she claimed. But Lord Woolf, Master of the Rolls, and two other appeal judges made clear that if doctors and relatives could not agree on treatment for a gravely ill patient, they should take the matter to the courts. In the latest conflict over medical treatment, the Court of Appeal and two other appeal judges rejected an attempt by Carol Glass to have the courts intervene over doctors' treatment of her seriously ill son, David. The clash between Mrs Glass's family and medical staff arose last October at St Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth, after 15 relatives fought to resuscitate her son as he lay close to death. Mrs Glass, 38, said that doctors decided that her son, whose thirteenth birthday is tomorrow, should be given pain-killing diamorphine and allowed to die "with dignity". She then sought a declaration in the High Court that Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust acted beyond its powers when it decided last October that "nature should be allowed to take its course". But the appeal judges said yesterday that it would be inappropriate to give Mrs Glass leave to challenge the original High Court ruling. The issue was too "sensitive" a problem for the "blunt tool" of judicial review. Lord Woolf, sitting with Lady Justice Butler-Sloss and Lord Justice Robert Walker, said David was now back at the family home in Portsmouth and it would be "an inappropriate task for the court" to intervene in the current circumstances. Should a similar crisis arise in the future, the mother could take further legal action, they said. Backing the ruling by the High Court judge, Mr Justice Scott Baker, Lord Woolf said it "was perfectly right to adopt the course which he did. Any other course would have been inappropriate". David, who has recovered from the life-threatening illness which led to him being hospitalised last October, is now "enjoying the sunshine". When he was born hydrocephalus - water on the brain - was diagnosed; he currently suffers from blindness, spastic quadriplegia and severe learning difficulties. Lord Woolf described him as "dearly loved and cared for most effectively by his mother and her family", who wished him to live out his natural lifespan. The judge said there was a breakdown in mutual trust between the family and doctors at St Mary's which culminated last October in violent scenes at the hospital involving doctors and certain family members, but did not involve Mrs Glass. It was later said that the family's actions in pulling him from his bed to stimulate his breathing prevented David from dying. But doctors condemned their actions as "cruel" and said David should have been allowed to die. David would in future be treated at a Southampton hospital, the judge said. If there was an emergency and he was taken to a Portsmouth hospital it was agreed he would be transferred as soon as possible. But Mrs Glass wanted reassurance that if he were to be treated in hospital in future, her wish that he be kept alive would not be overridden by the doctors. Lord Woolf said: "I understand fully why Mrs Glass might feel that she would be comforted by a court taking that action, but I have no doubt it would be inappropriate for the court to do so." Later, Mrs Glass claimed a victory despite the judges' refusal to allow the case to go to appeal. "I knew that this wasn't going to be clear cut.But I am pleased about the part of the judgment when the judges made it clear that doctors have got to at least listen to the parents and, if it can't be resolved between parents and the medical staff, then go to court." After the hearing Michael Wilks, chairman of the BMA's medical ethics committee, welcomed the judges' emphasis on the "need for doctors to seek a consensus with parents on the best interests of the child". In the "vast majority of cases" that was achieved, he said. Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows www.trisomyonline.org Families Helping Families On-line