The parents of a seriously ill baby have said they are “deeply distressed” by a legal ruling which will allow their “only and beloved son” to die.

The parents, known as Mr and Mrs T, said they planned to “enjoy what little time” they had left with their son who has a rare metabolic disorder and has suffered brain damage and major respiratory failure.

Last night the parents’ final possible legal avenue to keep their son alive failed when two Appeal Court judges upheld an earlier High Court ruling giving permission to doctors to allow him to die.

The parents said they had battled to keep their son alive because of “his humanity and inherent worth” but they now believed doctors were preparing to switch off his ventilator within the next 24 hours.

In a statement issued through their solicitor they said relationships with doctors and staff at the hospital became “very difficult” at the end of last year when medical staff wanted to withdraw treatment while they felt they “had to fight to ensure that he is given every possible chance”.

Mr and Mrs T said there were “lots of issues which still worry us” but added: “We think we did the right thing even though we were repeatedly told it was hopeless and that we were being irresponsible in not following the medical advice that he should be allowed to die.”

The parents, who could not face hearing the decision yesterday and waited outside the court, went on: “We are and always will be convinced that despite his desperate problems his life is worthwhile and is worth preserving as long as it is possible to do so without causing him undue pain.

“That was the real argument between us and the doctors - they think his life is intolerable and that his disability is such that his life has little purpose; but we, along with some of the nurses, believed that he experiences pleasure and that he has long periods where he was relaxed and pain free.

“Our belief in his humanity and inherent worth justified us taking every step to support him.”

But Mr and Mrs T said that despite “all the problems and creeping mistrust” with the medical team, and the fact that they disagreed “profoundly” with the doctors, they wanted to put on the record that for a substantial period the hospital staff “have strived to support him and keep him alive”.

“We have been and remain enormously grateful to the National Health Service for the huge effort and massive cost that has been involved in OT’s battle for life,” they said.

Referring to the parents during the hearing at the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Ward said the judges were “not unmindful of the horror of their predicament”.

He said he would like to have addressed the parents personally but asked their lawyers to pass on the message that although the hearing seeking permission to appeal had been conducted “in a brusque, uncaring, unfeeling way on a crude issue of law”, he wanted to tell them it was impossible not to feel the “deepest sympathy for their predicament”.

“One has great respect and admiration for them,” he said.

The NHS trust involved, which, like the child and his parents, cannot be identified on the orders of the courts, had argued that the child had no prospect of recovery and that he suffers intolerable pain as a result of his treatment and condition.

OT’s parents fought the trust’s application for a declaration that withdrawal of treatment was in the child’s best interests.

They want doctors to keep him alive as long as possible, so long as that does not cause him unacceptable suffering.

Lord Justice Ward and Lord Justice Wilson said they would give their reasons for rejecting permission to appeal at a later date.

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