Baby Charlie’s six-day reprieve
DOCTORS should maintain life-support for terminally-ill baby Charlie Gard while judges consider his case, the European Court of Human Rights ruled yesterday.
Parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates want 10-month-old Charlie, who suffers from a rare genetic condition and has brain damage, to undergo trial therapy in the US.
The couple appealed to judges in Strasbourg after exhausting legal options in the UK.
The court ruled that doctors should keep treating Charlie until midnight on Monday.
Specialists at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, where Charlie is being cared for, say the treatment – known as nuclear bypass therapy – will not help and that life-support should be stopped.
A judge in April ruled against a trip to the US. The High Court in London heard Charlie, who was born on August 4 last year, has mitochondrial disease which causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage.
Mr Justice Francis concluded that life-support should stop and Charlie be allowed to die with dignity. Three Court of Appeal judges upheld that ruling in May and three Supreme Court justices on Thursday dismissed a further challenge by the couple, who are in their 30s and from Bedfont, west London.
But lawyers for the parents, who have crowd-funded £1.3million to take their son to the US, say parents should be free to make decisions about their children’s treatment unless any proposed treatment poses a risk of significant harm.