A British teenager who is terminally ill has won the right to refuse treatment and forced a hospital to drop its High Court case.
Thirteen year old Hannah Jones of Marden, near Hereford, has a hole in her heart and needs a heart transplant to survive - doctors say without one she has only six months to live.
Hannah previously suffered from leukaemia and her heart has been weakened by the drugs she was required to take from the age of five - but Hannah is adamant she does not want surgery and has expressed the desire to die with dignity at home.
There was apparently no guarantee the operation would be successful and even if it was it would mean a life of constant medication.
Hannah has apparently spent much of the past eight years in hospital undergoing treatment for leukaemia and the crippling heart condition cardiomyopathy - her heart is only able to pump at 10% of its capacity and Hannah has already had three operations to fit pacemakers.
Herefordshire Primary Care Trust's bid to force her to have a heart transplant was dropped after a child protection officer visited Hannah and interviewed her.
Hannah apparently managed to convince the officer that this was a decision she had made on her own and she had thought about it over a long period of time, and eventually the court proceeding was dropped after treatment options were discussed and Hannah ably expressed quite clearly that she did not wish to go back into hospital for cardiac treatment.
Hannah says she wants to stop treatment and spend the rest of her life at home - a request her parents fully support which has made them proud of her.
Hannah's father Andrew, aged 43, has reportedly said his daughter has been through enough and the hospital's behaviour is outrageous.
Hannah's mother Kirsty, 42, is a former intensive care nurse, and she says if Hannah did have a transplant it was likely she would need another within five years.