Disabled baby's fate is undecided
Updated on 02 November 2009
His father wants him kept alive, his mother wants him allowed to die. Now the high court must decide the fate of a seriously ill baby boy. Tom Clarke reports.
The one-year-old boy, known as RB, has a rare condition which severely restricts his movement and ability to breathe independently.
Doctors, backed by the boy's mother, want to take him off a ventilator, but his father is fighting the plan.
He argues a simple operation, a tracheostomy, could allow baby RB to be kept on a ventilator at home.
Baby RB has a severe form of congenital myasthenic dyndrome - a rare genetic disorder leaving him very limited control over his muscles. But his brain is thought to be undamaged.
This is the first time the courts have had to decide on the life of a child with no evidence of brain damage.
Baby RB's parents, who were in court together but have separated since the birth, both appealed through their barristers on behalf of their child.
