By Celia Kitzinger, 12th March 2024 He’s in his early 20s with a severe learning disability, having been born with partial Trisomy 13, meaning that he has an extra chromosome. He also has a congenital heart condition known as “Tetralogy of Fallot”. He lives at home with his mother who is his primary carer (though he alsoContinue reading “US expert to assess whether COVID-19 vaccination is in P’s best interests “
Tag Archives: Covid Vaccination
Covid and expert evidence: Vaccination is NOT in P’s best interests
By Celia Kitzinger, 14th January 2024 (updated 10th February 2024 after approved order was made) It’s been a while since I’ve observed a contested hearing about COVID vaccination in the Court of Protection[1], and I was assuming they’d all worked their way through the system by now. So, it was a surprise to log onContinue reading “Covid and expert evidence: Vaccination is NOT in P’s best interests”
COVID-19 vaccination with sedation: Instructing an expert
By Anna (with Celia Kitzinger), 10th August 2022 This is one of a long series of hearings about COVID-19 vaccination in which family members argue against vaccinating P but the judge makes a decision to vaccinate. This case (COP 12219141) is a bit different from the others because the judge already made a decision that itContinue reading “COVID-19 vaccination with sedation: Instructing an expert”
A response to ‘The politics of the pandemic…’: COVID-vaccination of a disabled man
Let me be clear: I also do not know where the evidence points, because the evidence is not reliably available to examine. I do not know this because the supremacy of evidence-based medicine has been lost, which is personally devastating, as I wonder what will happen to evidence, debate, scientific method and freedom to explore uncertainty.
Cross-examining a GP in a COVID-vaccination hearing
By Celia Kitzinger, 4th February 2022 Editorial note: The judgment is published here: A CCG v. DC & MC & AC [2022] EWCOP 2. The parents subsequently appealed the decision, and the appeal was heard by Hayden J MC & Anor v A CCG & Anor [2022] EWCOP 20. (See postscript to this blog forContinue reading “Cross-examining a GP in a COVID-vaccination hearing”
“Non-mainstream” treatments and CPR for a COVID-19 patient in intensive care
Counsel asked whether, if the court were of the view that CPR was in AB’s best interests, the treating team would then be willing to administer CPR. This question was presumably designed to address a lack of clarity (quite common, in my experience, in Court of Protection cases) as to whether a proposed treatment is actually an available option for the court to consider. The court cannot order doctors to give futile treatments – and CPR had been so described by Dr G.
On not allowing the strong views of family members to prevail: A COVID-19 hearing
“Strongly held views by well-meaning and concerned family members should be taken into account but never permitted to prevail nor allowed to create avoidable delay. To do so would be to expose the vulnerable to the levels of risk I have identified, in the face of what remains an insidious and highly dangerous pandemic virus“ (Hayden J §26, SD v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea [2021] EWCOP 14)
The politics of the pandemic in the Court of Protection
Fears about government infringement of fundamental freedoms via compulsory vaccinations and vaccine passports has also fuelled public unrest internationally.Critics point to the weaponizing of fear to coerce population-wide vaccination and to the use of coercive psychological power to pit those who comply with mask-wearing against those who do not, and the vaccinated against the unvaccinated.
Disputes about COVID vaccination should be rapidly referred to the Court
“at First Avenue House – and I’ve checked with the senior judge – if an application comes in concerning a dispute about vaccination, one of our technical experts will deal with it, and it will be referred to a judge quickly. The arrangements in the regional hub courts are similar – the court staff are alert to the need to progress vaccination applications quickly” (DJ Mullins)
Covid vaccination and a Christmas visit
Her mother very badly wants PH to come home for Christmas. She described how she and her daughter “love each other dearly” and “have joy and pleasure in the time we spend together”. Her daughter she said, “loves Christmas decorations and a tree” – and visible on screen, in her home behind her, was a decorated tree with multi-coloured lights.
Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection 