Trump and Pope’s attempts to intervene in Charlie Gard case ‘unhelpful and very cruel’
INTERFERENCE FROM the Vatican and Donald Trump in the case of Charlie Gard is “extremely unhelpful and very cruel”, Professor Robert Winston has said.
His comments came after the US President and the Pope tweeted their support for the boy, who has been at the centre of a lengthy legal battle involving his parents and doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).
The Vatican’s paediatric hospital stepped in to offer care after Pope Francis called for Charlie’s parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, to be allowed to “accompany and treat their child until the end”.
But renowned scientist Lord Winston criticised attempts to transfer the 10-month-old from the central London hospital.
“I think, first of all, one has to accept the loss of a child is about the worst injury that any person can have and, secondly, I think the autonomy of parents is probably sacrosanct because a child can’t give approval, can’t give consent.
“But having said that, these interferences from the Vatican and from Donald Trump seem to me to be extremely unhelpful and very cruel, actually, because this child has been dealt with at a hospital which has huge expertise in mitochondrial disease and is being offered a break in a hospital that has never published anything on this disease, as far as I’m aware.”
Successive legal attempts by his parents have failed as judges in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in London ruled in favour of GOSH doctors, while the European Court of Human Rights declined to hear their appeal.
They are now spending the last days of their son’s life with him, after being given more time before his life support is turned off.
Charlie was born with a form of mitochondrial disease, a condition that causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage. Boris Johnson has backed GOSH, telling his Italian counterpart it is “right that decisions continued to be led by expert medical opinion, supported by the courts”. Prime Minister Theresa May also told MPs she is “confident” that GOSH would consider any offers or new information relating to the child.