Shropshire Star

Boris Johnson: Let doctors make decisions on terminally ill baby Charlie Gard

Charlie’s mother has spoken to doctors at the Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome.

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Charlie Gard

Boris Johnson has backed the hospital treating terminally ill Charlie Gard and stressed that any decisions made about his care should be in his “best interests”.

The Foreign Secretary told his Italian counterpart it is “right that decisions continued to be led by expert medical opinion, supported by the courts”, after the Vatican’s paediatric hospital offered to care for the young boy.

Charlie’s mother has spoken to doctors at the Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome and medics are in touch with international and US experts about the 11-month-old’s treatment, a spokesman for the hospital said.

Chris Gard and Connie Yates with their son Charlie Gard
Chris Gard and Connie Yates with their son Charlie Gard (Family handout/PA)

Charlie has been at the centre of a lengthy legal battle involving his parents, who want to take him to the US for experimental therapy, and doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).

Theresa May has said she is “confident” that GOSH would consider any offers or new information relating to the child.

The Prime Minister told MPs: “It is an unimaginable position for anybody to be in and I fully understand and appreciate that any parent in these circumstances will want to do everything possible and explore every option for their seriously ill child.

Theresa May
Theresa May spoke about Charlie Gard during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons (PA)

“But I also know that no doctor ever wants to be placed in the terrible position where they have to make such heartbreaking decisions.”

Charlie’s plight has attracted international attention, with both US President Donald Trump and the Pope tweeting their support.

More than £1.3 million has been raised in donations to help the family take Charlie to the US for therapy.

Mrs May said: “I am confident that Great Ormond Street Hospital have and always will consider any offers or new information that has come forward with consideration of the wellbeing of a desperately ill child.”

At Prime Minister’s Questions, the family’s MP Seema Malhotra said it was “clear that if Charlie remains in the UK there is no further treatment available and that life support will be switched off”.

The Feltham and Heston Labour MP urged Mrs May to do “all she can” if there was the possibility of Charlie being flown to the US for treatment.

But renowned scientist and genetics expert Professor Robert Winston has criticised attempts to transfer Charlie from the central London specialist children’s 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,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

“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.”

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