Baby at centre of court battle to be taken off life support

A SEVERELY disabled baby boy at the centre of a right to life battle which tore his parents apart is to be allowed to die in peace.

The decision to switch off baby RB’s life support “in his best interests” was sanctioned by a high court judge yesterday after the boy’s father withdrew his objections.

The one-year-old boy’s estranged parents, who were praised by Mr Justice McFarlane for their unstinting daily commitment to their baby at his hospital bedside, said in a joint statement that the father’s decision to drop his case had been “an agonisingly difficult decision”.

They now wanted to spend “what little time remains with their beloved son”.

The judge endorsed the plan to switch off RB’s intensive care ventilator so that, with palliative care, he can die with dignity. It was a “sad but inevitable outcome”.

The judge said the father, identified only as AB, and mother KM had spent the most part of each and every day of the last 13 months at RB’s bedside, “doing what they can to care for him and, when the opportunity arises, to interest and stimulate him, seizing upon any sign of a spark and trying to develop it into something more”.

The settlement of the case came on the seventh day of an emotionally-charged family court hearing in which the judge had faced the task of deciding whether RB should live or die.

The hospital authority caring for RB, supported by the mother, had sought a court order allowing him 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.

Baby RB was born in October last year with a form of 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 body.

Their principal concern was that he was unable to show when he was in pain during stressful treatment he had to undergo.

Mr Justice McFarlane was told the father had reached his decision after hearing evidence given in court by medical experts.