Charlie Gard's parents agree to let him die

This is an undated photo of sick baby Charlie Gard provided by his family, taken at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. The parents of a critically ill infant Monday July 24, 2017 withdrew their court fight seeking permission to take the child to the United States for medical treatment. Chris Gard and Connie Yates wept as their attorney revealed the results of brain scans. The 11-month-old has a rare genetic condition, and his parents fought hard to receive an experimental treatment. Doctors said it wouldn't help and contended Charlie should be allowed to die peacefully. (Family of Charlie Gard via AP)

This is an undated photo of sick baby Charlie Gard provided by his family, taken at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. The parents of a critically ill infant Monday July 24, 2017 withdrew their court fight seeking permission to take the child to the United States for medical treatment. Chris Gard and Connie Yates wept as their attorney revealed the results of brain scans. The 11-month-old has a rare genetic condition, and his parents fought hard to receive an experimental treatment. Doctors said it wouldn't help and contended Charlie should be allowed to die peacefully. (Family of Charlie Gard via AP)

Published Jul 24, 2017

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London - The parents of Charlie Gard

tearfully gave up their legal battle to keep their terminally

ill baby alive on Monday, saying his condition had deteriorated

too far for any possible recovery, in a case they said had

touched the world.

The parents said their 11-month-old son might have been able

to live normally if he had received experimental U.S. treatment

earlier but too much time had been "wasted".

"We have decided to let our son go," his mother Connie Yates

told London's High Court, where a judge had been due to hear

final arguments as to why a hospital should not turn off life

support.

"Charlie did have a real chance of getting better. Now we

will never know what would have happened if he got treatment."

Charlie has a rare genetic condition causing progressive

muscle weakness and brain damage and his parents had sought to

send him to the United States to undergo therapy, in a campaign

backed by U.S. President Donald Trump and Pope Francis.

Britain's courts, backed by the European Court of Human

Rights, refused permission, saying it would prolong his

suffering without any realistic prospect of helping the child.

The parents had begun a final attempt to reverse that

decision, saying there was new evidence which showed the therapy

offered by Michio Hirano, a professor of neurology at New York's

Columbia University Medical Center, could work for Charlie.

Hirano had said he believed there was at least a 10 percent

chance his nucleoside therapy could improve the condition of the

boy, who cannot breathe without a ventilator, and that there was

a small but significant chance it could aid brain functions.

But the court heard on Monday that scans last week showed

Charlie's muscular condition had deteriorated so much that

treatment would no longer work.

"JUSTICE FOR CHARLIE"

"There is one simple reason for Charlie's muscles

deteriorating to the extent they are in now - time. A whole lot

of wasted time," his father Chris Gard said outside the court,

where supporters chanted "Justice for Charlie" and waved blue

balloons.

"Had Charlie been given the treatment sooner he would have

had the potential to be a normal, healthy little boy."

The case has attracted heated debate about medical ethics

and whether doctors or parents should decide a child's fate.

Staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), where Charlie is

on life support, have received death threats and abuse,

something condemned by the parents and the judge.

GOSH said in a statement it believed there had been no real

change in Charlie's responsiveness since January and medical

experts had concluded before Christmas that Charlie had suffered

irreversible brain damage so any chance that the experimental

U.S. therapy might help had already faded.

"If Charlie has had a relationship with the world around him

since his best interests were determined, it has been one of

suffering," the hospital said.

The judge hearing the case, Nicholas Francis, said no

parents could have done more for their child.

GOSH and the family will now discuss the immediate future

and the parents plan to set up a fund in his honour.

"We are now going to spend our last precious moments with

our son Charlie, who unfortunately won't make his first birthday

in just under two weeks' time," Gard said.

"To Charlie, we say mummy and daddy, we love you so much. We

always have and we always will and we are so sorry that we

couldn't save you." 

Reuters

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