Terminally ill baby Charlie Gard has captured the hearts of everyone across the world as his parents have fought tooth and nail against bureaucracy to do what they can to save their child. But now the parents have decided to end the legal fight. From Fox News:
“As Charlie’s devoted and loving parents we have decided that it’s no longer in Charlie’s best interests to pursue treatment and we will let our son go and bewith the angels,” Yates said in court.The couple was expected to present new evidence in court on Monday, but they arrived in court to say the dragged out case has wasted “time. A whole lot of wasted time.”
In late June, the European Court of Human Rights caused international outrage when the judges decided to side with British courts to remove life support for 10-month-old Charlie Gard, refusing to allow his parents to take him to America for trial therapy, even though they raised more than $1 million for it.
Gard suffers from mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, a rare genetic condition, which has caused brain damage
and he cannot breathe on his own.
On Friday, the couple received the results of Charlie’s latest test results:
The British parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard have been told by a hospital lawyer that the results of their son’s latest brain scans make for “sad reading.”Great Ormond Street Hospital lawyer Katie Gollop broke the bad news to Charlie’s parents at a pre-court hearing Friday in London.Charlie’s father, Chris Gard, yelled “Evil!” at Gollop as his mother, Connie Yates, began to cry. The parents said at the hearing it was the first time they were being told about the latest results in the crucial test of Charlie’s brain function.
The test results infuriated the parents because they believe if they had been able to give Charlie treatment the results would have shown something different. From The Daily Mail:
They are furious because when they began fighting for Charlie to have the experimental therapy, he was not brain-damaged, according to a family source.‘The sad fact is the scans taken before the court hearing in April did not show irreversible brain damage. This is why the parents fought so hard. They should have been trusted,’ the source said.‘If anyone thinks the parents were deluded, and simply could not accept the diagnosis, they are wrong. Charlie was not a hopeless case. There was no brain damage. He should have been treated.‘As the court heard, he was a relatively normal little boy.’
Charlie’s mother Connie hinted at this as she delivered her statement:
“Had Charlie been given the treatment sooner he would have had the potential to be a normal, healthy little boy,” Yates said, referencing the recent medical test that ultimately led to the couple’s decision to withdraw.”I only wanted to give him a chance at life,” Yates said. “We will always know in our hearts that we did the very best for Charlie and I hope that he is proud of us for fighting his corner.”—“There has never been any proof that he was and we still don’t think that he’s in pain or suffering to this day,” Yates said in court on Monday.”Having said that, we have decided to let our son go and that’s for one reason and one reason only. It is because the prospect of improvement is unfortunately now too low for Charlie,” she added.
The parents have decided to donate the money they raised “would be donated to help other children with similar genetic conditions.”
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