The UK Human Rights blog has provided a note on A NHS Foundation Trust v MC [2020] EWCOP 33 (available on BAILII).
“MC was the subject of an application by an NHS Trust seeking the court’s consent for the harvesting of peripheral blood stem cells so they can be donated to her mother who has chronic leukaemia. Cohen J noted that this was the first time that an application for the extraction of bone marrow or stem cell donation by someone lacking capacity had come before the Court of Protection.”
In this case, the determination of “best interests” was a relatively easy one to make. For MC’s mother, the stem cell donation procedure would elevate a poor chance of survival to a 43-45% survival rate at 5 years, and that was obviously a “potentially highly significant benefit.” There were clear benefits, emotional, social and psychological, to MC of her mother’s life being extended. It was therefore “overwhelmingly” in MC’s best interest to participate in the proposed programme and donate her stem cells for the benefit of her mother. “It was in MC’s best interests as much her mother’s.”