Charlie, Alfie, Pippa - and now Archie: it's a recurring drama about children's lives, set in British courtrooms.

Doctors see no chances of improvement in seriously ill children and want to stop ventilation and artificial nutrition.

Parents want to preserve their child's life for as long as possible and do not give up hope of improvement.

Such a drama is currently taking place in London again.

It's about 12-year-old Archie, who suffered serious brain injuries in a domestic accident.

A judge on Friday ordered a brainstem test for the following week to determine if Archie is brain dead.

The treating physicians consider this to be “highly probable”.

His parents, on the other hand, believe that their son can wake up again.

They question the reliability of the test and demand that the treatment be continued.

hoping for a miracle

According to a report by the Guardian, Archie had an accident on April 7th.

His mother therefore suspects that he has embarked on a test of courage from the Internet.

Since then he has been in a coma.

"It's only been five weeks, it's taken me longer to recover from a cold," Archie's mother said, according to Hollie Dance, PA in response to the court's order.

The boy squeezed her fingers tightly despite the coma, she said.

"I think that's his way of telling me he's still around and just needs more time," said the Southend, Essex woman.

You hope for a miracle.

"I will not accept him leaving until it is God's will."

Many parents in similar situations seek help from religious institutions.

Archie's parents are supported by the organization Christian Legal Centre, which supports the separated couple in the legal dispute.

In a video on the organization's website, Archie's mother says she knows her son will probably never be the same again.

"But if there's an opportunity for him to have a happy life, I want to give it to him."

Even the Pope got involved

The case is reminiscent of similar disputes over seriously ill children in Great Britain.

The financially strained British health service tends to withdraw life support much sooner than would be the case in Germany.

In addition, the wishes of parents and relatives are not taken into account to the same extent.

What is in the best interests of the patient is often decided by judges on the recommendation of medical professionals.

In previous cases even the Pope had interfered.

Like when the parents of 23-month-old Alfie from Liverpool struggled to get their seriously ill child abroad for treatment in 2018.

Despite the opinion of a renowned expert from Germany on the boy's transportability and the Italian government's offer to fly the boy to the Vatican children's hospital Bambino Gesu, the devices were switched off by order of British judges.

At the time, Nikolaus Haas, who prepared the report for Alfie, suspected the fear of costs for the national health system NHS from similar cases – and arrogance – behind the tough attitude of the British doctors.

In Great Britain there is a culture in which decisions by doctors and the health system are difficult to question, said the professor of pediatric cardiology and pediatric intensive care medicine from the University Hospital in Munich in a dpa interview.