Dialysis Disagreement
A British appeals court determined that Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust acted unlawfully when it stopped providing dialysis to 68-year-old Robert Barnor on February 11. The hospital described the move as a "clinical decision." Lord Justice Newey, Lady Justice Asplin, and Lord Justice Baker released the judgment on March 3.
The court stated that disputes over withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from patients lacking mental capacity must be decided by the Court of Protection under Britain's Mental Capacity Act. The law governs decisions for adults who cannot make them for themselves. According to the judgment, Barnor had been hospitalized since April after suffering a stroke and a series of further strokes.
Unilateral Action
The appeals court stressed that courts cannot force doctors to provide treatment they consider clinically inappropriate. However, it added that when a patient lacks mental capacity, a dispute over withdrawing life-sustaining treatment must still be handled as a best-interests question under the Mental Capacity Act. "The hospital cannot pre-empt court proceedings by unilaterally withholding or withdrawing treatment on 'clinical' grounds," Baker wrote.
Barnor died February 27. His daughter, Lesley Barnor Townsend, had been granted permission to challenge the hospital's decision. The Court of Appeal sent the case back to the Court of Protection for an urgent hearing, but no best-interest determination was made before his death.
Family's Perspective
Townsend said she hoped the judgment would help protect other families facing similar situations. "It is too late now to save my father's life, but the system which took it away should be held accountable for that, for the sake of other people's fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, husbands, wives and children, whose lives still depend on it," she said. Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which supported the Barnor family's legal challenge, said lessons should be learned from the case.
Hospital's Response
A spokesperson for Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust told Fox News Digital, "Our sympathies are with the family at this very difficult time." According to the judgment, the trust obtained opinions in late 2025 from three outside specialists after doctors concluded that continued dialysis was clinically inappropriate. The court said two of those reports could properly be described as second opinions, but that Professor Lynne Turner-Stokes' report was "not a conventional 'second opinion'" because she did not examine Barnor.
The family was told at a Feb. 6 meeting that clinicians had decided Barnor was not suitable for long-term dialysis. In a Feb. 11 letter, the trust's solicitors said no further long-term dialysis would be provided and argued the matter was a clinical decision that did not require prior approval from the Court of Protection. The family disputed the hospital's assessment, saying they observed signs of responsiveness including Barnor tracking people with his eyes, blinking on request, reacting to music, and squeezing his wife's hand.
Call for Inquiry
Williams said that a thorough public inquiry into the medical and legal aspects of end-of-life care in the U.K. is long overdue. "The system must be urgently reformed to introduce robust protections for the sanctity of life, which remains a fundamental principle of law," she said.
