By Celia Kitzinger, 4th August 2025 The case, COP 20018026, before Mr Justice Hayden on 22nd and 23rd July 2025, appeared in the Royal Courts of Justice Daily Cause list as concerning “serious medical treatment”[1]. In an opening summary[2], counsel for the applicant explained that the case was about a man in his sixties who’dContinue reading “Balancing patient welfare and procedural fairness: Withdrawal of ventilation before Hayden J”
Tag Archives: treatment withdrawal
Withdrawing treatment from a pastor in a coma: Balancing religious beliefs and medical realities
By Rhiannon Snaith, 30th August 2023 An evangelical preacher in his fifties (KT) had a stroke in February 2022. He underwent emergency surgery but has sustained significant brain damage and never regained consciousness. He is currently in hospital, in a coma and also has end-stage kidney failure and Type 2 diabetes. The Trust was seekingContinue reading “Withdrawing treatment from a pastor in a coma: Balancing religious beliefs and medical realities”
Withdrawing treatment after brain-stem death: A case in the Family Division
Today I watched a hearing about whether or not a woman in her 40s is dead. She was declared dead at 11.45 on Thursday 10 March 2022, following brain stem death testing. The reason the doctors have continued to treat the patient and the reason the Trust has applied to court is that the family has opposed withdrawal of ventilation (and other treatments) and has asked for a private second opinion.
“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.
Promoting Open Justice in the Court of Protection 