Charlotte Wyatt Turns Three

Charlotte Wyatt turns three on Saturday. Guess what she's getting for her birthday?

A severely disabled child whose parents fought a long legal battle to ensure she was kept alive is to be placed in foster care because her parents have been judged unfit to look after her.

Brain-damaged Charlotte Wyatt has confounded the predictions of doctors who wanted permission to switch off her life support machine and will turn three on Saturday.

Her parents Darren, 34, and Debbie, 25, ran up a £500,000 legal bill for the taxpayer as they fought for two years in the courts to force the hospital looking after her to ensure she was resuscitated.

Eventually, the Wyatts argued, she could be looked after at home. Their successful legal battle was hailed as a moral triumph by those who believe cost should be no object in keeping a child alive even if they require a lifetime of intensive care.

But despite now being well enough to leave hospital, doctors say she cannot go home to her mother or father as there is no stable two-parent home for her to go to.

Doctors say that neither Mr nor Mrs Wyatt, who both survive on benefits, would on their own be able to provide their daughter with the 24-hour care she needs.

That's right. Her parents, who fought for her and stood up for her when no one else would, are "not fit" to care for her. I blogged about this back in April, and had hoped the issue would have been resolved by now.

You can listen to my opinion on the whole matter in the latest episode of Test Pattern, below, or you can subscribe to it at ISPN Media.

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