Indi Gregory: High Court judge to consider "end of life" care for critically ill child

A High Court judge is considering issues relating to “end of life” care arrangements for a critically ill baby who has been at the centre of a life support treatment fight.

Mr Justice Peel has been asked to decide where eight-month-old Indi Gregory should be when specialists withdraw treatment. Lawyers said options included a hospital, a hospice, and Indi’s home.

The judge was told that Indi’s parents, Dean Gregory and Claire Staniforth, who are in their 30s and from Ilkeston in Derbyshire, wanted her to be given end of life care at home. Mr Justice Peel, who is based in London, is considering arguments at a private online hearing in the Family Division of the High Court.

The judge has already ruled that specialists treating Indi at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham can lawfully limit treatment, after concluding that such a move would be in Indi’s best interests.

Indi’s parents want treatment to continue.

But they have failed to persuade Court of Appeal judges and judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France, to overturn Mr Justice Peel’s treatment decision. The couple, who are being supported by campaign group Christian Concern and its sister organisation, the Christian Legal Centre, have also failed in a bid to transfer Indi to a hospital in Rome.

Mr Justice Peel ruled that a move to Italy would not be in Indi’s best interests and Court of Appeal judges backed that decision.Judges have heard that Indi, who was born on February 24, has mitochondrial disease – a genetic condition that saps energy.

Specialists say she is dying and bosses at the hospital asked for a ruling that doctors could lawfully limit treatment. Medics say the treatment Indi receives causes pain and is futile.

Her parents disagree.