European Court of Human Rights: appeal by Pippa Knight’s mother rejected. Doctors may withdraw life support

Another no to Pippa Knight’s mother, another failed attempt by Paula Parfitt to desperately save her little daughter who suffers from a rare neurological condition - the acute necrotizing encephalopathy. Doctors at the Evelina Children’s Hospital in London, where the little girl is being treated, had decided in December 2020 to withdraw her life support. Now even the European Court of Human Rights rejected the appeal lodged by the girl’s mother from Strood, Kent, who since then has been fighting a legal battle to save her daughter. Doctors treating Pippa Knight, who slipped into a vegetative state two years ago, consider her unable to lead an autonomous life. Several courts of appeal in the UK ruled in favour of the doctors, upholding that it was “in Pippa’s best interests to die”. This stance was also upheld by the Strasbourg-based Court today. According to the European Court, in allowing Pippa to die, “the relevant regulatory framework in the United Kingdom did not disclose any shortcomings in breach of the domestic authorities’ obligation to protect the right to life”. Since the decisions of the domestic courts had not been “arbitrary”, Paula Parfitt’s appeal was declared “inadmissible”. The Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, however, agree with Pippa Knight’s mother in saying that by letting the girl die, the doctors and judges do “not acknowledge or afford her the inherent human dignity with which she was born”.
Valentina Bombelli