Pippa Knight - Queen Asked for Royal Prerogative of Mercy

Having lost her appeals to the British appellate courts, Pippa Knight's mother has sought a Royal Prerogative of Mercy to stop clinicians at Evelina Children's Hospital from stopping life-sustaining treatment. 

The Royal Prerogative of Mercy is one of the historic powers reserved to the British monarch, in which she can grant pardons - usually in criminal cases.

Notably, other parents who lost medical futility conflicts before the British courts took their cases to the European Court of Human Rights, as has Pippa's mother. But it is unclear whether the parents of Charlie Gard or other similarly situated patients who lost in the courts ever sought a Royal Prerogative of Mercy. 

While a surrogate conflict and not a medical futility conflict, the case of Terri Schiavo illustrates the extraordinary (if not bizarre) measures (in judicial, executive, and legislative forums) that some parents take in life-sustaining treatment disputes.