Court: Keep U.K. baby on life support

PARIS— A European court ordered Britain on Tuesday to maintain a terminally ill baby on life support for six more days after his parents, desperate to take their son to the U.S. for experimental treatment, lost their appeals before U.K. courts.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the British government should provide Charlie Gard, a 10-month-old suffering from a rare genetic disease, with artificial ventilation until midnight June 19.

The seven-judge panel considered that “serious and irreparable harm may occur” if doctors at a London hospital are allowed to stop treatment before the court is expected to review the case.

Three different British courts, including the Supreme Court, have ruled in favor of lifting life support, which would prevent the parents from bringing Charlie to the U.S. to undergo a therapy trial.

The European court’s ruling is aimed at giving the parents time to submit a complete application. If no such request is brought to the court by Monday night, the provisional order will be lifted and doctors will be allowed to withdraw Charlie’s life support and provide only palliative care.

Charlie’s parents have yet to submit a full application before the Strasbourg, France-based court. Their request has been only for an urgent interim measure so far.

The parents have managed to raise around $1.7 million in four months online through a crowdfunding website to cover doctors’ bills in the U.S.

The parents want doctors to keep their son alive by artificial means until they can take him to the U.S. for the new therapy which, they hope, might result in some improvement of his condition.