Following on from our recent post on the case, the father of a seriously ill little boy has dropped his objections to the hospital withdrawing him from life support.
The one-year-old boy has been in the centre of a legal case between the hospital, backed by the mother, and the father of the child. Born with a rare, genetic muscle condition (congenital myasthenic syndrome) that prevents him from breathing on his own, the baby has been reliant on a life support machine until now.
Medical evidence has confirmed that it would be in the best interests of the baby, known only as Baby RB for legal reasons, to withdraw the medical assistance keeping him alive.
This new evidence has led to the father dropping his objections.
The judge in the case welcomed the decision, saying it was a "sad, but in my view inevitable outcome"
He then went on to praise the baby's parents, "It is, I suspect, impossible for those of us to whom such an event has not happened to do more than guess at the impact of it upon these two young parents"
The parents are separated but have been united in caring for their child, and have sat at his bedside for the 13 months of his illness.
This is a horrendous decision for any parent to make, but the evidence in this case would suggest that the baby's quality of life was so poor that continuing it would have been unfair.