Supreme Court emphasises councils’ duties to inform parents fully about s. 20

by Julie Doughty | Jul 18, 2018 | Analysis, Cases, Comment, Explanation, FCReportingWatch, Notorious

“Parents with parental responsibility always have a qualified right to object and an unqualified right to remove their children at will (subject to any court orders about where the child is to live). Section 20 gives local authorities no compulsory powers over...

Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans and R (A Child): Why A Medical Treatment Significant Harm Test Would Hinder Not Help

by reporting watch team | May 22, 2018 | Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch, Notorious

This is a guest post by Katie Gollop QC and Sarah Pope. Katie represented Great Ormond Street hospital in the Charlie Gard case, and tweets as @katiegollop Sarah and Katie appeared in the recent case of Re R (A Child) [2018] EWFC 28. Sarah tweets as @sbvpope. Shortly...

The Abuse of Alfie’s Rights: A Gilded Death is Still a Death

by Allan Norman | May 18, 2018 | Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch, Notorious

Introduction: #AlfiesArmy v #ImWithAlderHey – an unbridgeable divide? Alfie’s life, his legal battles, and his death, have polarised opinion. Decent people on both sides of the debate have been able to acknowledge how awful it must be to be in this situation –...

Alfie Evans, best interests, and parental rights

by Polly Morgan | May 18, 2018 | Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch, Notorious

By now, we all know the terrible story of Alfie Evans, who spent 16 months of his two years of life in hospital as his brain turned to water and cerebral spinal fluid and who died following the removal of life sustaining ventilation. I say ‘we all know’, but the...

Alfie Evans: Summary and useful links

by Sarah P | Apr 29, 2018 | Comment, FCReportingWatch, Notorious

This photograph is from an article in Wired ‘How Facebooks Fake News fix made the Alfie Evans story go viral’  The sad case of Alfie Evans has attracted world wide attention in the last few days. There is a useful summary of the last year on the BBC...

SERGEI AND YULIA SKRIPAL AND THE COURT OF PROTECTION

by Barbara Rich | Apr 5, 2018 | Analysis, Cases, Comment, Notorious

What are a person’s best interests in a decision to permit use of samples of body fluids or tissue for a purpose which is neither of direct therapeutic benefit to the person him or herself, or an act of direct altruism towards another person? The law of mental...