Best Interests Cases – Doctors’ Decision Making

Best Interests – Medical Law Cases

The following cases illustrate how ‘best interests’ decisions are made.

In Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust v C & Anor [2023] EWHC 239 (Fam) the High Court found that it was in the best interests to give a baby boy anti-retrovirals from the moment of birth, to reduce the risk of the transmission of HIV from his mother during labour; the baby’s mother was considered to be at risk of not authorising the baby’s treatment due to misunderstandings. The application was for an anticipatory order, as the child had not yet been born.

The judge also observed that the case should have been brought much earlier than it had been, and not the night before the birth, with the court having to sit until 7.30pm. (para 19).

(January 2023)

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