An ethicist’s view on the Archie Battersbee case: a bad situation made worse

For weeks, the details of the Archie Battersbee case have filled the pages of newspapers and social media. Archie was a 12 year old boy who was found, on 7 April 2022, severely brain damaged from what is believed to have been a self-inflicted injury inspired by an online challenge.His case was heart wrenching. A young child, his whole life ahead of him, was fit and healthy one moment and neurologically devastated the next. The photographs of a lively Archie only deepened the sense of loss. Few people, thankfully, will plumb such depths of despair, but for those with children it is an ever present fear.The decision to withdraw life support was a grave one, as it led to Archie’s death, but the enormity of a decision’s consequences does not render it ethically complex. All of the judges and clinicians who examined the case agreed on the morally correct course…
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