In September 2008, the European Court of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECtHR) upheld a breach of Article 13 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), in that the UK failed to provide RK and AK with an effective legal remedy for the removal of their child from their care as a result of medical misdiagnosis. The case throws into focus the approach the domestic UK courts have on the rights of third parties, in particular, the rights of parents where their children are subjected to negligent medical treatment.
The High Court has granted a Dublin maternity hospital orders allowing it to perform, if required, an emergency blood transfusion to the unborn child of a Jehovah's Witnesses couple who is at risk of being delivered prematurely. Today the court heard the child's mother, who is approximately 26 weeks pregnant, presented with a spontaneous premature ruptured membrane. Doctors at the hospital treating the woman, who cannot be identified by order of the court, say they can't predict exactly when the child will be delivered but that the likelihood of a premature birth is high. They claim in the event the child is born in the next four to five weeks the infant "most likely will require a transfusion of blood or blood related products in order to safeguard the child's life and prevent it from sustaining serious injury." However the parents, for religious reasons, have refused to give their consent to allow the hospital administer a transfusion to the child.
Sally Roberts, 37, is opposed to her son Neon receiving radiotherapy treatment for a brain tumour, and disappeared with him on Sunday. Police launched a nationwide hunt for the pair after they disappeared from Tiverton, Devon. They were found by officers in Sussex. Devon and Cornwall police said: "Emergency protection care has been put in place and Neon's welfare will be considered in the High Court." Mrs Roberts was in the middle of a court battle with the child’s father Ben Roberts, an IT consultant, from Knightsbridge, London, who agrees with doctors that Neon’s chances of survival will be greatly increased with treatment. Mr Justice Hogg, at the High Court, took the unusual step to relax reporting restrictions to allow identification of the child as doctors said that without speedy treatment his chances will be "dramatically reduced".
A judge has postponed a decision on whether a mother should be allowed to prevent her son from receiving radiotherapy for brain cancer. Sally Roberts, 37, has been told seven-year-old Neon could die if he did not receive the treatment. She said she feared the treatment could do long-term harm. At the High Court in London, Mr Justice Bodey said he would rule at a hearing beginning on 18 December - unless agreement could be reached beforehand. During the Saturday morning hearing, he said that although he had intended to rule on the matter, developments had "changed the medical landscape".