Admin l Wednesday, July 05, 2017
LONDON, United Kingdom – At any moment from now, Charlie Gard, a terminally ill 10 months old baby will die unless certain steps are taken to stop enforcement of the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, ECHR.
Charlie is suffering from mitochondrial depletion syndrome, a rare and complex disease. Charlie Gard has trouble with basic life functions with his life itself being maintained by a ventilator in a British hospital.
His parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates received an experimental treatment offer from a hospital in the United States and are seeking support for Charlie’s transfer.
But the ECHR upheld the ruling of a High Court in London that the boy should not be transferred to the United States and that his life support should be shut down.
The court ruled that transfering the child to the US will give him more pain and suffering during the experimental treatment.
Charlie Gard’s situation resulted in a worldwide debate over his fate. Even Russia’s children’s rights commissioner Anna Kuznetsova has called upon the European Network of Ombudsmen for Children (ENOC) to save the life of Charlie Gard.
Kuznetsova said that the ECHR ruling is hard to accept from moral and ethical perspectives. She asked ENOC to provide support for Charlie’s parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, noting that it is a matter of several rights simultaneously in this case: right to life, freedom, security, respect of both private and family lives.
