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Live or let die? A court decides the fate of five-year-old Pippa
Does a court decide whether to live or die? Knight pippa
© Sinclairslaw / PA Media / DPA
Alfie, Charlie and now Pippa: Once again, doctors and parents are fighting over the fate of a child in a British court. The life of the five-year-old does not seem to be saved. But the consequences that the clinic draws from this shocked German doctors.
Two braids, a paper crown on the head and a dotted top. Pippa Knight looks like a normal five-year-old, if not for the blank stare and most of all for a long breathing tube up her nose. The girl is seriously ill, her brain is badly damaged, the machines keep the little one alive. But now the clinic, in which the boy has been treated for almost two years, wants to turn off the devices; Pippa’s mother vehemently objects to this in court. The question arises: who ultimately decides about the life of a child?
The Pippa Knight case recalls similar tragic trials in Britain: Charlie Gard, who died at the age of eleven months, and Alfie Evans, who was only 23 months old. Both boys had a rare genetic defect, in both cases even the Pope intervened to get the British judiciary to accept treatment abroad. In vain.
Lawyer: There is no hope for Pippa Knight
As in the clinic at the time, the hospital where Pippa is now also argues. “The decision to submit this application will only be made after careful examination and review of all available evidence,” attorney Michael Mylonas said in court. Pippa is unable to feel pleasure, in short: there is no hope for the child.
“From a medical point of view, Alfie was also a hopeless case; at that time there was no medicine in the world to save him,” says Nikolaus Haas, head of the department of pediatric cardiology and pediatric intensive care medicine at Munich University Hospital. the German press agency. Haas was in the Alfie case in 2018 as an expert witness in court, and is also following the dispute over Pippa. “The evaluation pattern from colleagues and the courts is sadly the same again here,” he says.
Unimaginable patterns of thought in Germany
From her experience in the Alfie case, Haas Pippa’s single mother sees little chance. “Doctors, and also judges, in the UK say they are in a better position to decide what is in the best interests of the child,” he says. It is different in this country: “We cannot imagine this way of thinking in Germany. We have learned to treat patients with severe disabilities differently.”
If a judge decides alone, there is a risk of a “feeling of omnipotence”, warns criminal lawyer Hans Lilie of the University of Halle (Saale). The situation would be different in Germany. “The decision is made by the custodians; the treatment cannot be stopped against their will,” says Lilie. Parents receive advice from interdisciplinary ethics councils, which make a recommendation after lengthy deliberations. “Family judges must be involved in deciding whether the well-being of the child may be at risk,” Lilie emphasizes.
Decision against the will of the parents
The expert does not know that a court in Germany has ruled against the will of the parents, on the contrary. In 2007, the Hamm Higher Regional Court overturned a local court decision that had withdrawn parental medical care for their four-year-old daughter, after the parents wanted to terminate treatment (Ref: 1 UF 78/07) . Parents are only disabled if they intentionally want to harm their child.
Rather, as expert Haas explains, an incision in the trachea and a nasogastric tube would be inserted early on, after which care outside of a hospital would be possible – that’s exactly what Pippa’s mother wants to achieve. “But that’s time consuming and expensive, and the British system doesn’t want to pay for that,” says Haas. “It’s also about power. Unfortunately, my impression is that nothing will or has changed there.”
He does not want a court to end the life of his daughter: Paula Parfitt, mother of Pippa Knight, a terminally ill, 5 years old.
© Kirsty O’Connor / DPA
Pippa’s mother: “I won’t let her”
But Pippa’s mother, Paula Parfitt, wants to fight, British media reports an emotional court appearance. “I will not give up,” the 41-year-old said at a hearing. No one could foresee if there might be new medical options in the future that could significantly improve Pippa’s condition. “She needs this possibility because no one knows. No one knows if it works until you try.”
The family has already suffered a stroke of fate: Pippa’s father died in 2017, and the girl became seriously ill in January 2019: a flu caused serious damage to the brain, the so-called acute necrotizing encephalopathy. Then the decision is made in court. On Tuesday, the hospital judge took a picture of the little patient.
