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Tuesday September 28, 2004
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Court to Hear Debate Over Hospital's No-Resuscitation Rule for Preemie
PORTSMOUTH, September 28, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Charlotte Wyatt weighed no more than one pound when she was born three months premature. She has severely damaged lungs and doctors have predicted she will not live past infancy. Her parents were told that should she have life-threatening problems, the child would be kept alive long enough for them to attend her death but that it would be "against the child's interests" to resuscitate her.
The hospital has said it will seek a court injunction if the parents insist on resuscitation. The child is now ten months old, weighs ten pounds and, say her parents, deserves every chance to live. Her father, Darren Wyatt said, "She has been fighting for 10 months and I'm not prepared to let her down. We need to be able to say we did absolutely everything in our power to help her."
He vowed to fight for his child's life in court. "If the hospital tries to get a court order we will have to fight that. We still hope that one day Charlotte might come out of hospital. We have a feeling that she can pull through." Mr. Justice Hedley said a public hearing was in the interests of an informed debate. He said, "In this kind of case, the interests of justice are much more likely to be served by a responsible debate, based on as full information as possible."
Doctors who decide to withhold treatment must 'discuss' the matter with parents, but there is no requirement that they abide by parents' wishes. Minutes from a meeting of the Portsmouth Hospital Trustees say, "The trust would be prepared to go to the courts rather than send Charlotte to the intensive care unit. From past experience the court would agree with the doctors as they would feel that doctors cannot be forced to treat a child in a way they believe to be against the child's best interests - despite the wishes of the parents."
News Telegraph coverage: http://www.sport.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2...
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