Alfie's parents wait for decisions in latest round of life-support battle
The parents of a 22-month-old boy at the centre of a life-support treatment dispute are waiting for decisions in the latest stage of their legal battle.
Lawyers say Kate James and Tom Evans, who are in their 20s and from Liverpool, have asked if Supreme Court justices can examine their son Alfie Evans's case.
A High Court judge has ruled that doctors can stop treating Alfie against the wishes of his parents.
Three Court of Appeal judges upheld the decision earlier this week.
The couple have to get over a preliminary legal hurdle before Supreme Court justices will analyse the dispute in detail.
They first have to show they have a case worth arguing, and get judges' permission to stage a Supreme Court fight.
Their lawyers have taken the initial step. They have asked appeal court judges to conclude that the case is worth arguing and to give the couple the go-ahead to stage a fight in the Supreme Court.
Appeal court judges were believed to be considering a written permission application on Friday.
The couple can go on to make the same permission application to a panel of Supreme Court justices if appeal court judges conclude the case is not arguable.
Judges have heard that Alfie, who was born on May 9 2016, is in a "semi-vegetative state" and has a degenerative neurological condition doctors have not definitively diagnosed.
Mr Justice Hayden analysed the case in hearings at the Family Division of the High Court in London and Liverpool.
Specialists at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool said life-support treatment should stop and the judge said he accepted medical evidence which showed further treatment was futile.
