Treatment for child ordered despite religious objections

An NHS Foundation Trust v T [2016] EWHC 2980 (Fam), 18 November 2016

The application was in relation to a child, T, who was suffering from a low blood platelet count, due to a suspected condition affecting the production of bone marrow. His treating doctors took the view that he was going to need to have blood products administered to him in order to prevent his health from deteriorating. The complication, however, was that T’s parents belonged to the Jehovah’s Witness faith, which rejected blood transfusion. The parents were therefore unable to consent to the treatment, but interestingly, they did not oppose either and left it to the court to decide.