Pro-Life News in Brief.

Britain's Baby Charlotte Can Receive Treatment

British judge who ruled last year that disabled baby Charlotte Wyatt may be denied medical treatment in an emergency reversed his decision October 21. Doctors will now have to follow her parents' request and resuscitate her if she loses consciousness, according to The Guardian, although the judge also ruled that the doctors can stop treatment if they decide it is against Charlotte's "best interests."

"This is the best birthday present she could ever want, because now Charlotte can get on with her life," said Charlotte's father Darren Wyatt, according to the Daily Post. "We haven't got this huge black cloud hanging over us now.'

The new order from High Court Justice Hedley came on Charlotte's second birthday. Charlotte was born three months premature, according to the Birmingham Post, and has brain, lung, and kidney damage. She continues to live in St. Mary's Hospital in Portsmouth.

Before Justice Hedley's October 2004 decision, the hospital asked for a do not resuscitate order, contending that Charlotte had "no feeling other than continuing pain," the Liverpool Daily Post reported. The Wyatts appealed, but Justice Hedley upheld his decision in April 2005. In August 2005, the Court of Appeals also upheld the ruling, but ordered an urgent medical review of her case.

Following the appeals court's order, an independent group of experts examined Charlotte and reported to Justice Hedley that she has made remarkable progress. "Charlotte undoubtedly has awareness of others around her and now takes pleasure in the environment around her," the group's report read, according to the Daily Mail. "She is painfree, comfortable and has emerging social attachments to her parents and key staff members.

"She is clearly more robust and no longer the 'very sick baby' who was previously described, although she remains dependent on oxygen and vulnerable to respiratory infections. We believe she is now stable enough to begin to spend periods of time in the care of her parents, within hospital grounds and at home."