Judge to rule on Patient L’s treatment

A High Court judge was giving his decision today in the case of a severely brain–damaged patient at the centre of a legal battle over his treatment.

Mr Justice Moylan, sitting at the Court of Protection in London, has been asked by a hospital trust responsible for the care of “Mr L”, a devout Muslim, to rule that it can lawfully withhold treatment.

Members of the 55–year–old Greater Manchester patient’s family say their religion requires everything to be done to prolong life “until God takes it away”.

Mr L’s wife and two of his adult sons say it would be wrong for clinicians of the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust to withhold ventilation or resuscitation in the event of cardiac or respiratory failure.

Doctors diagnosed Mr L as being in a persistent vegetative state after a cardiac arrest in July, which resulted in devastating brain damage.

They said Mr L would have “no meaningful quality of life” if treatment were given. His family insist they had seen signs he was not in a vegetative state.

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