ABSTRACT
In the UK, a high dose of the drug DF 118 was given to a newborn with Down’s syndrome, in the now famous Arthur case (R v Arthur (1981), reported in (1991) BMLR 1 (discussed fully in de Cruz and McNaughten, By What Right?, 1987, p 1 et seq; for a further discussion of the English position see Chapter 4). The doctor was acquitted of murder when it emerged that the child had additional abnormalities and it could not be proved conclusively that his death from pneumonia was due to the DF 118. A crucial distinction has been drawn in Britain between not prolonging and terminating a life. The article on the report cites Taylor LJ (in [1991] Fam 33), who said: ‘The court never sanctions steps to terminate life … There is no question of approving, even in a case of the most horrendous disability, a course aimed at terminating life or accelerating death. The court is concerned only with the circumstances in which steps should not be taken to prolong life.’
