A baby at the centre of a landmark case over whether life support can be withdrawn has an "intolerable life", the High Court has heard.You heard that right. A family has to go to court to prevent a doctor from killing their 17-month old son!Baby MB, who cannot be named, has spinal muscular atrophy - a genetic condition which leads to almost total paralysis - and cannot breathe unaided.
Doctors treating the 17-month-old say it is in his best interests to withdraw ventilation and to let him die.
But his family says he has a reasonable quality of life and should stay alive.
They feel he can recognise and respond to them, and that he gains enjoyment from spending time with his family.
I'm sure it isn't uncommon for a doctor to develope some sort of God complex but this is plain nuts. For a doctor, a fully grown adult I might add, to tell a child's parents that the child wants to die seems to me to be the stuff of some sick horror story.
And to think that the parents have to sit in a courtroom and listen to this is plain sickening.