Fighting for the Right to Life

In Wales, Leslie and Nick Hartland are fighting to keep their six-year-old daughter Amber on a ventilator, and therefore alive. Amber has Infantile Tay-Sachs, an incurable brain disease, and was hospitalized with a chest infection. A judge will soon rule on whether doctors can “withdraw the option of her being put in intensive care and given life-saving procedures in future.”

The Hartlands believe that money may be a factor in the doctors’ decision:

Mrs Hartland also told BBC Radio Wales that a member of staff at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport had told them that Amber was costing other Gwent children money. The Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust has been asked for comment.

“We believe it is about money. Amber costs money at the end of the day,” said Mrs Hartland. “But my father, my husband’s mother and father, they have all paid their taxes and have never used the health service. Everyone is entitled to the health service.”

Mrs Hartland said Amber has a full life between bouts of illness – and enjoys foreign holidays and an active life. “Amber has a right to life,” she added.

A reader tipped us off to the BBC’s coverage of the story, which can be found here .