Overview

• Mrs Justice Theis refused Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s request to withdraw clinically assisted nutrition and hydration from YD, invoking the presumption in favour of preserving life under the Mental Capacity Act.
• Treating clinicians and an independent expert described YD’s condition as a prolonged disorder of consciousness with irreversible brain damage and no realistic prospect of recovery or awareness.
• YD’s two long-term partners, who only learned of each other after his injury, independently affirmed his strong belief in spiritual healing and his wish to continue living.
• The Official Solicitor argued that YD’s dignity and meaning derive from the love and care provided by his partners and that he would choose to live until a natural death occurred.
• Commentators noted that the ruling underscores tensions between best-interests law and the NHS’s financial and operational pressures for long-term care of patients in prolonged disorders of consciousness.