Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v FB & Ors [2025] EWCOP 60 (T3)

Application for declaration that an NHS Trust could move FB to palliative care even where there was an option for stem cell therapy.

The Trust's application, supported by her special guardians, was for a declaration regarding the medical treatment of FB, a 19-year-old with trisomy 8 mosaicism and significant learning disabilities. In July 2025, FB was diagnosed with a high-risk form of acute myeloid leukaemia. Her treating clinicians concluded that whilst stem cell transplant was the only curative option, FB's learning needs and associated behaviours rendered optimal delivery of that treatment impossible. Two courses of chemotherapy had been administered but proved highly distressing. The Trust sought a declaration that palliative care only was in FB's best interests.

Ms Justice Harris granted the declaration, finding it was not in FB's best interests to undergo stem cell transplant, further chemotherapy, or other treatments. The clinical consensus from treating and independent experts was that FB's survival prospects over two years were only 10-15%, as compared with 40% for the average 19 year old, due to her inability to comply with the demanding treatment regime. The court weighed the significant physical and psychological burdens of further treatment against its limited prospects, having regard to FB's own expressed wishes to return home, her family's views, and her Article 2 and Article 8 rights.

Read the judgment on Bailii