Comment

WHO could fail to be moved by the plight of Charlie Gard and his parents’ desperate battle to keep him alive?

For all the furore surrounding this heartrending case, at its centre are two thoroughly decent people following the most natural instinct on Earth – to fight with every sinew to protect their sick baby.

So their decision yesterday to give up the legal fight to stop doctors switching off Charlie’s life-support is achingly poignant.

The Mail does not presume to make moral judgments about the rights and wrongs of the case. Medical staff sincerely believed the life of this profoundly brain-damaged child was no longer worth living, so wanted him to be able to die with dignity.

The parents said no, pleading for Charlie to be allowed to travel to the US for pioneering treatment they hoped might save him. Their struggle touched the hearts of millions around the world, including Mail readers who helped to raise £1.3million towards medical costs.

That money will now be used to set up a medical foundation in Charlie’s name, so his death will not have been in vain.

But there is also a deeply ugly and troubling side to this story. Doctors and nurses at the hospital have been subjected to abuse and even death threats. Charlie’s parents have been the victims of vile internet trolls, who accused them of selfishly prolonging their baby’s suffering.

Such deranged individuals have probably always been with us but in social media, they have a perfect platform to pour out their bile. And thanks to the insouciance of web giants such as Facebook and Twitter, they can do it with impunity.

In a separate intervention yesterday, a senior chief constable launched a blistering attack on these massively wealthy, taxavoiding corporations for standing idly by as the internet becomes ‘the Wild West’.

Will they ever take responsibility for the stream of malevolence that drips daily from their sites?