ABSTRACT
In the case of Mr Y, a 52-year-old investment banker who suffered severe brain damage after a 10-minute cardiac standstill secondary to occlusive coronary artery disease. Neurological experts agreed that he had no awareness of self or his environment, and that it was ‘highly improbable’ that he would regain consciousness. The court has no power to render something lawful that without the court's sanction would be unlawful. Rather, the question for the court is whether the non-therapeutic sterilisation, or the withdrawal of clinically assisted nutrition and hydration (CANH), is in the best interests of the incapacitated patient. The High Court found that the previous decided cases in the common law did not establish a principle that all instances concerning the proposed withdrawal of CANH from a person who lacks capacity must be sanctioned by a court.
