London NHS Trust v CD & Ors (Withdrawal of Life Sustaining Treatment) [2021] EWCOP 727

Application to discontinue life sustaining treatment to the P who was in a  ​vegetative state. The application was granted.

The 20 year old P was in a vegetative state following an attempted suicide. The Trust's clinical treating team considered that continuing treatment was futile concluding that with no prospect of any meaningful recovery, it was inimical to the P's best interests to continue to provide life sustaining treatment or administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the event of a cardiac arrest. The clinicians at the Trust concluded that continued respiratory support, provision of CANH and/or treatment and ICU interventions were invasive and burdensome for the P who has no real prospect of recovery. They were concerned that continued treatment would be unethical. The application was supported by the P's mother and sister but opposed by her father.

The court granted the application. Taking into account all of the medical components of her situation and what the court concluded are her likely wishes the court was satisfied that she would not have wished to continue life-sustaining treatment but that she would have opted for its cessation and for the implementation of a palliative care regime which would enable her to pass from this life leaving her family to make the best that they could of theirs. 

Read the full text of the judgment on Bailii