Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust v William Verden (By His Litigation Friend, The Official Solicitor) and anor. [2022] EWCOP 8 Feb 2022 (here) Mrs Justice Arbuthnot has sent out a clear message to all parties in Court of Protection proceedings that, when applying for reporting restrictions, there is an expectation that a full account will be given to the judge of any media coverage that had already taken place. Establishing the best interests of William Verden is an extremely challenging task from a clinical, ethical and legal standpoint.   In early March ’22 a judge of the ..read more

Re AH [2021] EWCA  1768 (25 November 2021) Introduction The four adult children of AH appealed the order made on 3 September 2021 by Hayden J sitting in the Court of Protection,[1] in which he declared that it was not in AH’s best interests for her to continue to receive life-sustaining treatment, namely, ventilatory treatment after 31 October 2021. The order was not to take effect until that date to enable AH’s children to make arrangements (including travel from abroad) to be with their mother at the time that ventilatory support was going to be withdrawn. This in itself was highly unu ..read more

Judgment has today been handed down in In the matter of X (A Child) (No 2) [2021] EWHC 65 (Fam) an essential read for the law on consent to medical treatment in relation to those under 16 and those aged 16 and 17.  The facts:  X suffers from sickle cell syndrome and is a Jehovah’s Witness, as is her mother.  On occasion, X is admitted to hospital in a crisis when, in the opinion of her treating clinicians, a top up blood transfusion becomes an imperative necessity.   There were two such crises in June and October 2020 when urgent applications had to be made to the ..read more

An NHS Foundation Trust v AB The issue in this case was whether, as the trust asserted, AB lacked capacity to make decisions about treatment relating to anorexia nervosa. She had suffered from this condition since the age of 13 and was now 28. All treatment, including nasogastric tube feeding which was the only life-prolonging treatment now on offer, had failed, and her weight of just under 26 kg (a body mass index of 9.7) was incompatible with life. Tube feeding now would cause her enormous trauma, put her at significant physical risk and could itself be fatal. The court found that AB’s anore ..read more

Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership & North Bristol NHS Trust v WA & Ors [2020] EWCOP 37 Introduction This application concerned WA, a Palestinian refugee, who belives he was born on 29 December 1994, and who was therefore 25 years old. WA is a patient at Southmead Hospital, Bristol, having been admitted due to malnourishment. WA suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression as a consequence of extreme physical and sexual abuse suffered during a ‘disastrous’ foster placement in Italy between his flight from Palestine and his arrival in the UK in 2009.  Since ..read more

An NHS Foundation Trust v MC  [2020] EWCOP 33 (judgment here)   Many may be surprised to discover that the question of whether an incapacitous person should undergo an invasive medical procedure that is of no therapeutic benefit to herself, but which is likely to be of benefit to a third party, has never previously been determined by the Court of Protection.   Indeed, it seems the last time any court considered a similar matter was so long ago that one Mr James Munby QC was then instructed as counsel to the Official Solicitor.[1] Nowadays,[2] altruistic tissue don ..read more

Mental capacity to consent to sexual relations is a topic which has plagued the Court of Protection for over a decade. Whether capacity is “person-specific”, “issue-specific”, “status-specific”, or “act-specific”, the case law has been difficult to penetrate at best. The recent Court of Appeal case of Re JB (Capacity: Sexual Relations) [2020] EWCA Civ 735 seeks to wade through the muck. The facts This case concerns a 36-year-old man (“JB”) with a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder who wants to date and have sexual relations with women. He lives in supported living, partly due to his histo ..read more

Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust  -v-  MSP [2020] EWCOP 26    Judgment 3 June 2020  here Whatever the media headlines, “this is not a case about choosing to die, it is about an adult’s capacity to shape and control the end of his life. This is an important facet of personal autonomy which requires to be guarded every bit as jealously for the incapacitous as for the capacitous” [47]. In a thoughtful and sensitive judgment, the Vice President of the Court of Protection has emphasised again how the principle of sanctity of life may give way to the right of ..read more

Testamentary capacity and Lord Templeman’s will Introduction On 19 March 2020, Mr Justice Fancourt handed down judgment in the matter of Re Baron Templeman of White Lackington (Deceased)[2020] EWHC 632 (Ch). The case concerned the validity of the last will of Lord Templeman, who sat in the House of Lords from 1982 to 1994. No post about Lord Templeman would be complete without reference to his forthright and uncompromising manner. One of the many accounts of his dealings with Counsel included a case where he had been characteristically robust with Leading Counsel. Having concluded with the Lea ..read more

This blog is written towards the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown. We are not yet three weeks in, and do not know what the future holds. The Government is clear that there is not, and is unlikely to be, a situation where there are more patients nationally requiring ventilation than there are ventilators. If achieved, avoidance of the situation faced by doctors in Italy and Spain will come about by a combination of increased supply of ventilators, moving patients and ventilators around to match supply to demand, and the application of tough triage criteria, so that access to ventilation is ..read more