News round up: children with learning disabilities, poverty, police

Life and death decisions with a disabled child

My eldest daughter, Emmy, was epileptic in the womb. This means that the abnormal foetal movements during the last two months of my pregnancy were actually epileptic seizures. She had her first seizure outside the womb at three months, followed by many months in hospital, before being discharged into my completely untrained hands.

David Cameron to set out blueprint to tackle poverty

The Conservative leader has asked Iain Duncan Smith to “review the benefits system, with a focus on marginal withdrawal rates and making work pay”. The former Tory leader has recently backed plans to give benefit claimants hundreds of pounds if they return to work.

Pregnant woman reported to social services over half-decorated home

Mary Cooke invited a policewoman into her house after she had dialled 999 to report a speeding car which nearly hit her outside her home in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs. However, the 27-year-old was left furious after she claims the officer raised concerns with the council’s children’s services department over the state of her property.

Mother’s views over her child’s care outweighs that of the father, says senior paediatrician in right-to-die baby case

A mother’s wishes over her child’s care outweigh those of the father, a profoundly disabled child’s right-to-die trial was told yesterday. Hospital doctors favour a mother’s views on the treatment of her child and give them ‘particular weight’, a senior paediatrician told the High Court.