SW News: A family in the UK will appeal the High Court verdict to remove life-supporting systems from their 12-year-old son. Archie Battersbee was hospitalized earlier this year after his parents found him unconscious with a knot around his neck on April 7. He was reportedly a victim of an internet blackout challenge. His parents Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, who hail from Scotland, are determined to protect him at any cost.

Archie was declared "brain-stem dead" by doctors at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London. When the hospital decided to withdraw the boy's life-support treatment and take him off the ventilator, it sparked a legal struggle as Hollie and Paul argued that his heart was still beating.

High Court judge Emma Arbuthnot ruled on Monday that Archie died "on the balance of probability," based on the findings of an MRI exam put forth by the hospital administration. After attorneys for hospital executives argued that "all of the evidence" suggested Archie would never regain consciousness, the High Court judge made the verdict.

Decrying the ruling, Hollie said, "I am devastated and extremely disappointed by the judge's ruling after weeks of fighting a legal battle when I wanted to be at my little boy's bedside."

"Basing this judgment on an MRI test and that he is 'likely' to be dead is not good enough. This is believed to be the first time that someone has been declared 'likely' to be dead based on an MRI test," she further added.

The Christian Legal Centre is assisting the family in their legal struggle. Meanwhile, Archie had indicated an interest in becoming Catholic and was baptized on Easter Sunday in the hospital. The following day, Dance and the rest of the family were baptized.

The case is similar to those of Charlie Gard in 2017 and Alfie Evans in 2018, in which courts in Britain decided against parents who attempted to send their children overseas for further treatment despite medical staff's advice. Both children died subsequently.