A Christian grandmother in a coma is scheduled to have life-sustaining measures withdrawn despite her family’s insistence that she is not terminally ill.
In November, the U.K. Court of Appeal ruled that it is in the woman’s purported “best interests” to die by removing an artificial airway and withholding nutrition. The woman’s family has protested the ruling, but the court has not granted them another opportunity to appeal.
Family members told the court that the 54-year-old woman reacted to their voices with eye movements and squeezed their hands when they asked her to do so.
Despite this, the doctors at the King’s College Hospital in London claimed that there is allegedly no benefit of keeping the woman alive “artificially.”
Christian Concern, a legal advocacy group representing the woman referred to as “XY,” strongly insinuated that XY was black, describing her daughter as “part of a London-based family with Jamaican roots.” XY worked in a “physically demanding role” for the National Health Service (NHS) and suffered a heart attack on May 6, 2024, which resulted in serious brain damage.
According to the Daily Mail, the daughter told the court her mother “would choose life over death because she loved life.” She said her mother would want to leave the moment she dies in God’s hands.
According to Christian Concern, the family said that the woman was not terminally ill and could survive for years with proper treatment and care.
Christian Concern, which represents the family in the trial, also noted that the Court of Protection imposed a gag order (“transparency order”) on them, preventing them from speaking openly about the case, asking for donations, or seeking an alternative hospital.
“This is utterly unfair and so cruel. We are all horrified at what is happening, and now we are in a desperate race against time to save her,” XY’s adult daughter told the Daily Mail.
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre (Christian Concern’s legal organization), said: “This case shows how, in the assisted suicide debate, we cannot leave it with the judges to protect life even if it is clear from the family’s evidence that the patient would want life to continue.”
Since the family has been denied another appeal, they have applied for urgent interventions from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to prevent the withdrawal of life-supporting measures.
“This story provides the clear direction of travel for how vulnerable patients and families will be under any ‘assisted dying’ legislation,” Williams warned. “We stand with the family as they take their case to Europe and seek to have reporting restrictions lifted.”
“My mother is at the centre of a large family and a big part of her community and a pillar of her local church with lots of friends,” XY’s daughter stated in court. “She is a popular person who cares deeply about other people. Everyone who knows her says that she would have wanted to take every chance to continue to live and would not want to be put to death.”
“Our wishes as a family and my mother’s right to life has been trampled on by the hospital and the courts.”
“Like many families before us, the whole system has come against us and is forcing death on us rather than helping us pursue options for life,” she continued.
“Instead of supporting the family at this difficult time, we have been taken to Courts to condemn my mother to death. We have found this system to be unbelievably cruel and unfair, with NHS and the courts working hand in glove to enforce death on the innocent.”
Note: The woman’s life-sustaining measures were scheduled to be removed on Thursday, December 12. Christian Concern’s media manager told LifeSiteNews that her lawyers “have made a last-ditch application for a ‘stay of execution’ to prevent life-support being withdrawn.” We will update the report as soon as there is more information available. LifeSiteNews asks its readers to pray for the woman and her family.