ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study of a ‘happy joyful’ 5 year old girl who had a headache. Shortly after, she stopped breathing; intracranial surgery revealed haemorrhage from a ruptured arteriovenous malformation. Following maintenance on intensive care and treatment of hydrocephalus, she was clinically stable, dependent on artificial ventilation. She had suffered catastrophic damage to her brain. Her parents, Bangladeshi and committed Muslims, raising their daughter in the Islamic tradition, wished to take her to the Gaslini Hospital. In the absence of the criteria to fulfil a diagnosis of brainstem death, active withdrawal of treatment is not permitted in Italy. As is usual in these cases, the judge employed the ‘Welfare checklist’ as an aide memoire to identify relevant factors that needed to be balanced against each other before he could reach a conclusion on where her best interests lay.
