Archie’s parents fail to persuade Supreme Court to intervene in hospital battle

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “The parents of Archie Battersbee filed their application to appeal to the Supreme Court earlier today,” said a Supreme Court spokeswoman in a statement. Lawyers representing Archie’s parents had asked appeal judges to “stay” the termination of treatment to allow time for consideration of an application to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. Appeal judges imposed a stay on the termination of treatment and said Archie’s parents could have until 2pm on Thursday to make an application to the European court. “The committee has previously criticised the UK system of authorising withdrawal of life support from disabled people based on the court determination of their best interests rather than on their own wishes.” Lawyers representing Archie’s parents argued, in their Supreme Court application, that by making a stay which only allowed an application under the ECHR, the Court of Appeal wrongly subjected them to “pressure not to adopt one international human rights procedure over another”.