Doctors and judges should not decide the issue of "best interests" for a child

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

"Best interests" of a person is a subjective area and different people will come to different conclusions. "Suffering" is also subjective and one person will endure more than another person before they suffer. Parents are more likely to accurately gage this due to their emotional link to the child.

You cannot make these decisions with any degree of certainty for another person, and you certainly cannot default to "they would want to die" when they are unable to express their wishes themselves.
Therefore the parents of the child who cannot speak for themselves should make the final decision as their emotional link to the child is more likely to accurately gage the complex questions of "best interest" and "suffering".

Why it was rejected

It was not clear what the petition asked the UK Government or Parliament to do.

Petitions need to call on the Government or Parliament to take a specific action.

We're not sure what action you would like the UK Government or Parliament to take.

You could start a new petition asking for a specific change to the consent to treatment guidance, if that's what you want to happen. You can find out more here:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/consent-to-treatment/children/

Timeline

24 Apr 2018	Petition opened for signatures
13 Jun 2018	Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21

Status Rejected

Rejected 13 Jun 2018

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