The parents of a 12-year-old boy ruled as brain dead have been granted the right to appeal.

       Doctors treating Archie Battersbee at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, thought he was "brain-stem dead" after a freak incident at his home.

       In the High Court family division, Mrs Justice Arbuthnot ruled last week that the boy died "at noon on May 31 2022" based on MRI scans and gave Barts Health NHS Trust permission to disconnect him from a ventilator.

       It was thought to be the first time someone was declared "likely" to be dead based on an MRI scan, which the court heard is not as reliable as the usual brain stem test.

       But lawyers for Archie's parents, Hollie Dance and Paul Battersbee, pointed out that their son’s heart was still beating.

       At a follow-up High Court hearing on Monday, the judge granted Ms Dance and Mr Battersbee permission to mount a bid to overturn the ruling at the Court of Appeal.

       A barrister leading the family’s legal team argued that evidence had not shown "beyond reasonable doubt" that Archie was dead.

       Edward Devereux QC said the decision had been made on a balance of probabilities, the normal standard for civil cases.

       But the lawyer argued that given its "gravity", the criminal standard of proof of "beyond reasonable doubt" should have been used.

       Granting permission to appeal on this one ground, and dismissing Mr Devereux’s eight other grounds of appeal, Mrs Justice Arbuthnot said Court of Appeal judges had never considered that standard of proof issue in relation to "declaration of death" cases.

       Archie was found unconscious at home in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, on April 7. He was in cardiac arrest for around half an hour with no pulse, and never regained consciousness.

       His mother feared he was taking part in the "blackout" social media craze, a highly dangerous stunt challenging people to choke themselves until they pass out from a lack of oxygen.

       Archie has been in hospital for nine weeks, but doctors have been unable to carry out the approved brain stem test for neurological death.

       The family, backed by the Christian Legal Centre, argued the original ruling was "extending the definition of death", which currently lacks consensus under British law.