Archie Battersbee case: in Belgium, we would favor consensus rather than justice
The fight of the relatives of the young Englishman Archie Battersbee to avoid stopping his life is the focus of all attention. In Belgium, explain the specialists in the question, justice and ethics are mixed less quickly: it is the consensus with the parents that takes precedence.
By Laurence Wauters
LCould the struggle of the family of Archie Battersbee, a 12-year-old British boy who has been in a coma since last spring, be the same in Belgium? On April 7, the boy’s mother had found him unconscious, probably following a “black-out challenge”, which consisted of depriving himself of oxygen until he fainted. He was hospitalized at the Royal London Hospital, but soon the family and the hospital became involved in a legal battle as doctors had to subject the child to tests to assess his brain function – tests that must be done by favoring this fragile patient. The doctors had successfully performed for these controls, which showed a lack of response when stimulating peripheral nerves.
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