Judge decides anorexic to be fed

Published on 16/06/2012 00:00

A HIGH Court judge has ruled that it is in the best interests of a woman who suffers from “extremely severe” anorexia to be fed against her wishes.

Mr Justice Peter Jackson found that the 32-year-old, who has other chronic health conditions, “lacked capacity” to make a decision about life-sustaining treatment.

Sitting at the Court of Protection in London, the judge said it was a “very difficult decision” to make in a situation requiring “a balance to be struck between the weight objectively to be given to life on one hand and to personal independence on the other”.

Her case had “raised for the first time in my experience the real possibility of life-sustaining treatment not being in the best interests of a person who, while lacking capacity, is fully aware of her situation”.

Mr Jackson made his judgment public yesterday.