Leonard Arthur

rdf:langString Leonard Arthur

rdf:langString Leonard John Henry Arthur (20 April 1926 – 25 December 1983) was a British doctor tried in the 1981 case of R v Arthur, for the attempted murder of John Pearson, a newborn child with Down's syndrome. He was acquitted. An important test case, the trial brought to public attention the dilemmas for doctors in treating severely disabled newborn infants. Arthur felt strongly that doctors should always act in the best interests of the child, with the full support of the parents. In some cases this meant not prolonging the child's life, in order to prevent future suffering. Opinion polls taken at the time of the trial indicated huge public support for Arthur's approach. The outcome of the trial confirmed that ‘nursing care only’ is an acceptable form of treatment, and that administering a drug to relieve suffering is not an offence, even if it accelerates death. Ambiguities remain, however, about what is legally permissible in the treatment of disabled infants: if a doctor or anyone else intentionally kills a child, however disadvantaged, this would still be considered to be murder.