Care must go on for baby Charlie
Court orders care until final judgement
COURTS: Judges in the European Court of Human Rights say doctors should keep treating a terminally ill baby while they consider the case.
Chris Gard and Connie Yates, from Bedfont, west London, want their 10-month-old son Charlie Gard, who suffers from a rare genetic condition, to be treated in America.
JUDGES IN the European Court of Human Rights say doctors should keep treating a terminally-ill baby at the centre a dispute while they continue to consider the case.
Chris Gard and Connie Yates, who are in their 30s and come from Bedfont, west London, want their 10-month-old son Charlie Gard, who suffers from a rare genetic condition and has brain damage, to undergo a therapy trial in the US.
They have asked European Court judges in Strasbourg, France, to examine issues after exhausting all legal options in the UK.
Strasbourg judges said that doctors should keep treating Charlie until midnight on June 19.
Specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where Charlie is being cared for, say the therapy proposed by a doctor in the US is experimental and will not help.
They say life support treatment should stop.
A High Court judge in April ruled against a trip to the US and in favour of Great Ormond Street doctors.
Mr Justice Francis concluded that life-support treatment should end and said Charlie should 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 after a hearing in London.
Mr Justice Francis had made a ruling on April 11 after a trial in the Family Division of the High Court in London.
He heard that Charlie, who was born on August 4 last year, had a form of mitochondrial disease, a condition which causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage.
Specialists in the US have offered a therapy called nucleoside.
Lawyers representing Charlie’s parents say parents should be free to make decisions about their children’s treatment unless any proposed treatment poses a risk of significant harm.
“Charlie Gard’s parents filed a request for an urgent interim measure with the European Court,” said a European Court spokeswoman.
“The applicants have not at this stage submitted a full, substantive application.”
She said in those circumstances judges had decided that lifesupport treatment should continue and added: “At this stage in the procedure, the court cannot prejudice any decision that it may ultimately make on the substance of the case.”
Mr Justice Francis said he had made his decision with the “heaviest of hearts”, but with “complete conviction” for Charlie’s best interests.
“All of Charlie’s treating doctors at Great Ormond Street are agreed that Charlie has reached the stage where artificial ventilation should be withdrawn, that he should be given palliative care only and that he should be allowed to die peacefully and with dignity,” Mr Justice Francis had said.
He should be allowed to die peacefully and with dignity.
The ruling by Mr Justice Francis in April.