Alfie’s father: I will not give up treatment fight
THE father of a braindamaged boy has said he will not give up despite losing a treatment fight in the High Court.
Tom Evans complained that his 21-month-old son Alfie Evans had been wrongly “sentenced to the death penalty”.
A judge yesterday ruled that doctors could stop providing life-support treatment to Alfie.
Mr Justice Hayden, who analysed the case in hearings at the Family Division of the High Court in Liverpool and London, said he accepted medical evidence which showed further treatment was futile.
Specialists at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool had asked the judge to rule that lifesupport treatment could end. They said continuing to provide treatment was “unkind, unfair and inhumane”. Alfie’s parents, Mr Evans and Kate James, wanted treatment to continue and asked for permission to take Alfie to hospitals in Europe.
Mr Evans told Mr Justice Hayden he wanted time to consider the ruling.
“The system has worked against us,” he said. “I’m not crying because I know how wrong they are, I know how strong my boy is doing. This isn’t the end. This is just the start.”
Specialists had told Mr Justice Hayden that Alfie had a “progressive, ultimately fatal neurodegenerative condition” which had not been diagnosed – one doctor said it might become known as “Alfie’s disease”.
Lawyers representing Alder Hey said doctors planned to stop providing life-support treatment on Friday.