Pope Offers Prayers for Charlie Gard and His Parents as Legal Challenge Ends

A U.S. neurologist determined that an experimental therapy could no longer be of aid to the British baby, who has been baptized.

(photo: Charlie Gard's Fight Facebook)

LONDON — After a U.S. neurologist determined that an experimental therapy could no longer potentially be of aid to Charlie Gard, the British baby born with a disabling medical condition, his parents have given up a legal challenge to take him to the United States for the treatment.

British and European courts had sided with English hospital officials who sought to bar Gard’s parents from seeking treatment overseas.

Greg Burke, the Holy See press officer, said July 24: “Pope Francis is praying for Charlie and his parents and feels especially close to them at this time of immense suffering. The Holy Father asks that we join in prayer, that they may find God’s consolation and love.”

Charlie Gard, who is 11 months old, is believed to suffer from a rare genetic condition called mitochondrial depletion syndrome, which causes progressive muscle weakness. The disorder is believed to affect fewer than 20 children worldwide. Charlie has been in intensive care since October 2016. He has suffered significant brain damage due to the disease and is currently fed through a tube. He breathes with an artificial ventilator and is unable to move.

His parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, had wanted to keep him on life support and transport him to the United States in order to try an experimental treatment. They raised more than $1.6 million to help seek his treatment in the U.S.

However, their decision was challenged in court by hospitals and an attorney appointed to represent Charlie. The parents appealed a U.K. High Court decision, and their appeal to the U.K. Supreme Court was rejected.

The efforts to keep Charlie’s parents from seeking overseas treatment were based on deep ethical errors, a Catholic expert in medical ethics told CNA earlier this year. Melissa Moschella said the hospital’s effort represented a “quality of life” ethic that says human life is valuable only if it meets certain capacities — and the hospital’s actions are, moreover, a violation of parental rights.

Dr. Michio Hirano, a U.S. neurologist, had been willing to offer Gard nucleoside bypass therapy, while acknowledging it would not necessarily heal him. But after seeing a new MRI scan this week, Hirano declined to offer the therapy.

According to The Guardian, Connie said, “All our efforts are for [Charlie]; we only want to give him a chance at life. There’s one simple reason for Charlie’s muscular deterioration [and] that was time,” noting the lengthy decisions from the courts of London that restricted Charlie from obtaining the U.S. treatment.

The representative for Charlie’s parents, Grant Armstrong, said, “For Charlie, it’s too late — time has run out. Irreversible muscular damage has been done, and the treatment can no longer be a success.”

Charlie’s parents now wish to establish a charity to research and combat mitochondrial depletion syndrome.

His parents are spending time with their son before his life support is ended.

As EWTN News Nightly reported July 24, baby Charlie was baptized.

Addressing her son in court, his mother said, “Mummy and Daddy love you so much, Charlie.” 

 

Read more about the case here.