Baby will be allowed die in arms of parents

A High Court judge last night made orders allowing hospital doctors to, if necessary, withdraw medical treatment from, and not resuscitate, a brain-damaged and profoundly ill three-week-old baby.

The court move means the boy — who, his father said, is in a lot of pain — will be able to die in his parents’ arms rather than in a hospital ventilator surrounded by machinery.

Mr Justice Paul McDermott said the boy’s condition had been starkly outlined as “hopeless” and he was suffering greatly. The boy has serious congenital deformities and his life prospects were described as “bleak and remote”.