Few winners in the Charlie Gard case
Widdecombe
THE arrogant attitude of the Great Ormond Street team in the Charlie Gard case was neatly captured in the statement of its barrister Katie Gollop: that the American specialist had a financial interest in the drug which might have been offered and had given the parents false hope.
Firstly, what about the other six international scientists who signed the letter saying the experimental drug might (not necessarily would) work? Were they all motivated by money? Secondly, what about the people whom the drug has already helped? Clearly their hope was not false. Somehow I would have had so much more respect for GOSH if its counsel had said: “Our doctors earnestly hope that the pioneering work being carried out by Dr Hirano will one day be able to save children like Charlie.”
I would also have had more respect if hospital representatives had mentioned the threats and abuse Charlie’s parents had received when complaining about the treatment of their own staff on social media. And did they really not think to tell them the result of the latest scans before they heard it in court?
That does not mean however that Dr Hirano is above criticism. The parents found out about his work in January and raised the money but it was not until July, by which time the Pope and the President of the USA had become involved, that he finally examined Charlie.
To be sure, he cannot take off across the world to examine in person every patient who might be a suitable case for his expertise but scans can be sent by computer, can they not? The parents will probably always agonise over the loss of that six months.
The judge is obviously a kind man, putting up with poor behaviour in court and the suggestion that he was too partial to try the case. Yet throughout he seemed to demand proof of experimental procedures as if they had been established for years.
Perhaps the only people who emerge with one hundred per cent credit are the lawyers who acted for the parents without any pay.
Yet in the end I am still scratching my head over one simple question: if the parents wanted to try cutting edge medicine at an internationally renowned hospital and were not asking the taxpayer to fund it then why the heck was it ever the business of anybody else to stop them? just A PHOTO of Theresa May’s feet suggests her big toe is crooked and pointing the wrong way. Experts claim it is to do with wearing heels. If that is true then heaven help the Duchess of Cambridge in 20 years’ time.