Last week the High Court heard the tragic case of Tafida Raqeeb, now aged five, who suffered a devastating intracranial bleed on February 9 of this year. She sustained widespread brain damage but is not brain-stem dead and is now on long-term ventilatory support.

The doctors at Royal London Hospital wish to discontinue ventilation in her “best interests”. Her parents (pictured outside the Court) wish her to be sent to the Gaslini Children’s Hospital in Genoa where the Italian specialists do not consider it in her “best interests” to discontinue her ventilation unless she is brain-stem dead. It is proposed that a tracheostomy and gastrostomy feeding tube should be inserted to help facilitate long-term care at home with her family.