‘Delighted’ to help
POPE, PRESIDENT WEIGH IN ON CASE OF TERMINALLY ILL BRITISH INFANT CHARLIE GARD.
U. S. President Donald Trump and the Vatican have s poken out in support of Charlie Gard, a terminally ill British infant whose case has captured worldwide attention after European courts decided that he could be removed from life support against his parents’ wishes.
Pope Francis said on Twitter that “to defend human life, above all when it is wounded by illness, is a duty of love that God entrusts to all.” The Italian news agency ANSA reported Monday that officials at a Vatican- owned Italian hospital will ask their counterparts at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital whether 10- month- old Charlie can be moved from that facility to Rome.
On Monday, Trump tweet- ed about the case, writing that the United States “would be delighted to” help. “If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2017”
It’s unclear how the U. S. government would be able to assist.
According to ANSA, Mariella Enoc, the president of the Rome children’s hospital Bambino Gesù, said on Monday, “We know that it is a desperate case and that there are no effective therapies.” Enoc added: “We are close to the parents in prayer and, if this is their desire, willing to take their child, for the time he has left to live.”
Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said in a statement that Francis has called for Charlie’s parents to be able to care for him until his death.
“The Holy Father follows with affection and emotion the case of little Charlie Gard and expresses his own closeness to his parents,” the statement read, according to Vatican Radio. “For them he prays, hoping that their desire to accompany and care for their own child to the end is not ignored.”
Charlie, who will be 11 months old on July 4, has a rare genetic condition and resulting brain damage that has robbed him of his ability to move his arms and legs, eat or even breathe on his own.
British courts decided that the boy should be allowed to die after a legal battle in which doctors asserted that the child had no chance of survival. His parents argued that there was an experimental treatment in the United States they had not tried.
The case was taken all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, which de- clined to hear the matter last week, upholding previous court rulings that it was in Charlie’s best interest to withdraw life support.
Charlie’s story swept the globe as his parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, expressed devastation that they had no say in their son’s life or how and when he would die. They appeared on video late last week, sobbing and saying their son would be removed from life support Friday and would take his last breaths at the hospital.
“He’d fight to the very end, but we’re not allowed to fight for him anymore,” Gard said in the video statement. “We can’t even take our own son home to die.”
But Friday, the parents said doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital had decided to postpone Charlie’s removal from life support.
“We have been in talks today with Great Ormond Street and they have agreed to give us a little bit more time with Charlie,” Yates told the Daily Mail. “We are really grateful for all the support from the public at this extremely difficult time. We’re making precious memories that we can treasure forever with very heavy hearts. Please respect our privacy while we prepare to say the final goodbye to our son Charlie.”