Medical experts throw their weight behind campaign

THE campaign by Connie Yates and Chris Gard is backed by an impressive array of medical and political heavyweights.

Significantly, given their high-profile showdown with doctors last year, they have won the backing of a number of leading medical specialists. Today the Mail can unveil the first politicians and doctors who are publicly championing Charlie’s Law.

The group of big-hitters is starkly different to some of the campaigners with varying agendas who attached themselves to the couple last year.

They include Baroness Hollins, a former president and chairman of the British Medical Association. A world expert on children’s health, she entered the Lords as a crossbench peer in 2010. She is a past president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and led a World Health Organisation steering group on the health of children and young people with intellectual disabilities.

Another backer is Dominic Wilkinson, one of the country’s leading doctors for newborns. The consultant neonatologist and professor of medical ethics at the University of Oxford took the side of doctors against Charlie’s parents. But now he is convinced the couple are seeking a proportionate and correct solution.

His voice carries significant weight, as he is also associate editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics and managing editor of the Journal of Practical Ethics.

A third expert backing the campaign is Julian Savulescu, an Oxford philosopher specialising in medical ethics. He said: ‘Charlie’s Law is an important step forwards into the 21st century. The dispute at the heart of the case of Charlie Gard was fundamentally ethical, not medical. It was about what constitutes a child’s best interests.’