from Christian Concern
In a landmark judgment delivered this morning, the Supreme Court has severely curtailed the secretive practices of the Family Division judges in cases involving withdrawal of life-saving treatment from critically ill children.
Following a seven-years-long legal battle involving two families supported by the Christian Legal Centre, Rashid and Aliya Abbasi and Lanre Haastrup, the injunctions which prevented the families from telling their stories have now been discharged
Rashid and Aliya Abbasi and Lanre Haastrup were taken to court by respectively by Newcastle-Upon-Tyne NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College Hospital who sought permission to withdraw life-sustaining treatment from their children in two different ‘best interests’ applications.
Following high-profile controversies in the 2017-2018 cases of Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans, family judges routinely granted life-long anonymity to all doctors, nurses and other NHS staff involved in similar cases.
However, the panel of five justices chaired by the President of the Supreme Court, Lord Reed, has now ruled that permanent gagging orders may only be granted exceptionally to protect a specific individual based on “compelling evidence” of “a real and continuing threat of a serious nature” to that individual.