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UK judge rules intensive care for brain-damaged boy can halt

29 of January 2018

FILE - This is a Jan. 22, 2018 file photo of sick baby Isaiah Haastrup's mother Takesha Thomas and father Lanre Haastrup outside the High Court in London, A British judge on Monday Jan. 29, 2018 ruled that intensive care treatment can be withdrawn for a brain-damaged 11-month-old boy despite his parents’ wishes for continued intervention. The judge says that doctors can stop providing life support treatment to Isaiah Haastrup. The case had been heard in the Family Division of the High Court in London. (Philip Toscano/PA File, via AP),FILE - This is a Jan. 22, 2018 file photo of sick baby Isaiah Haastrup's mother Takesha Thomas and father Lanre Haastrup outside the High Court in London, A British judge on Monday Jan. 29, 2018 ruled that intensive care treatment can be withdrawn for a brain-damaged 11-month-old boy despite his parents’ wishes for continued intervention. The judge says that doctors can stop providing life support treatment to Isaiah Haastrup. The case had been heard in the Family Division of the High Court in London. (Philip Toscano/PA File, via AP)

A British judge has ruled that intensive care treatment can be withdrawn for a brain-damaged 11-month-old boy despite his parents' wishes for continued intervention. The judge says that doctors can stop providing life support treatment to Isaiah Haastrup. The case had been heard in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

LONDON (AP) — A British judge has ruled that intensive care treatment can be withdrawn for a brain-damaged 11-month-old boy despite his parents’ wishes for continued intervention.

Judge Alistair MacDonald said Monday in Birmingham that doctors can stop providing life support treatment to Isaiah Haastrup. The case had been heard in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

Specialists at King’s College Hospital say further intensive treatment would be “futile, burdensome and not in his best interests.”

Doctors told the court the boy had suffered “catastrophic” brain damage because of oxygen deprivation at birth.

His parents say they want treatment to continue.