Parents, hospital clash over taking baby home to die
THE parents of terminally ill baby Charlie Gard accused a London hospital yesterday of preventing their son from coming home to die, the latest harrowing confrontation in a legal battle that has raised emotions far and wide.
The renowned children’s hospital treating Charlie told a court that the reality of the invasive ventilation the infant required meant that proper end-of-life care could not be provided to him in his parents’ home.
The plight of 11-month-old Charlie, who suffers from an extremely rare genetic condition causing progressive brain damage and muscle weakness, has been at the centre of a bitter dispute between his parents and Great Ormond Street Hospital.
The case has triggered a strident debate on social media and in the press about whether doctors or parents should decide a child’s fate.
US President Donald Trump and Pope Francis are among many people not directly involved who have weighed in with views.
“Emotions are as high in this case as they could be in any,” the judge presiding over the case, Nicholas Francis, said.
Little Charlie requires a ventilator to breathe and he cannot see, hear or swallow.
His parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, resigned themselves to allowing him to die after the most recent set of scans showed his condition had deteriorated to the point where no recovery was possible.
But Yates was back at the London High Court yesterday.
This time it was for a hearing on practical arrangements for the end of Charlie’s life.
The parents want Charlie to be taken to their home or to the home of a close relative or friend for his last moments until his life support system is switched off.
Their lawyer, Grant Armstrong, told the London High Court that Great Ormond Street was placing “obstacle after obstacle” in the way of the parents’ wish.
“We struggle with the difficulties the hospital is placing in the way of the parents having a . . . short period of time before the final act in Charlie’s short life,” Armstrong said.
The hospital said Charlie’s end-oflife care must be safe, spare the baby all pain and must protect his dignity, while at the same time honouring his parents’ wishes about the time and place of his passing.