By Bridget Dolan QC
R (Allman) v HM Senior Coroner for Liverpool and Wirral
The short and desperately tragic life of Alfie Evans, and his parents’ heart-rending fight to have him transferred to Rome for continuation of his life sustaining treatment, has recently been fully played out in the public arena.
The public hearings in the High Court and the four appearances in the Court of Appeal were not only all open to the public but the details were widely reported throughout the print and digital media. On two occasions the family sought permission to take the case to the Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice but on each occasion those applications were dismisssed. Those hearings were on paper without any oral submissions but once again the determinations were made public.