Father drops baby right-to-life fight

A father who has been fighting to stop the life support for his seriously ill baby son being switched off, today withdrew his opposition to the move which had been backed by doctors and the little boy's mother.

The decision came on the seventh day of an emotionally charged High Court hearing in which a judge faced the formidable task of deciding whether chronically disabled one-year-old baby RB should be allowed to live, or die in peace after withdrawal of his ventilation.

Baby RB was born in October last year with what is thought to be congenital myasthenic syndrome (CMS), a rare neuromuscular condition which severely limits the ability to breathe and move limbs.

Expert medical witnesses described him as having a normal brain locked inside an immobile and "non-communicative" body.

"All of the parties in court now agree that it would be in RB's best interests for the course suggested by the doctors to be followed," lawyers for the health authority caring for the baby in intensive care told the judge Justice McFarlane.

The judge said it was a "sad but in my view inevitable outcome" and the "only tenable one for RB", the Press Association reported.

He paid tribute to the young estranged parents who he said had been "exemplary" in attending to their son at his hospital bedside every day during his short life.

Both parents wept and the mother at one point left the court in tears but returned to hear his tribute to them and the doctors and nurses caring for their son.

The hospital authority had sought a court order allowing RB to die with dignity rather than continuing to live what doctors described as a "miserable and pitiful" existence.

The father initially opposed the application, arguing his son showed signs of "purposeful" movement when presented with toys and should have the chance to live, even though chronically disabled.

But medical experts said their principal concern was that baby was unable to show, by facial expression or bodily movement, when he was in pain during the stressful treatment he had to undergo.

In a joint statement issued by the lawyers involved in the case, RB's father was now said to be "satisfied that the benefits of further medical treatment are sadly no longer in RB's bests interests".

It added: "This has been an agonisingly difficult decision."