A High Court judge is set to decide where terminally-ill baby Charlie Gard will end his life after the little boy’s parents and hospital bosses became embroiled in a new legal fight.
Connie Yates and Chris Gard want their 11-month-old son to spend his last days with them at home before dying.
But doctors caring for Charlie at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London said it is not practical to provide the level of life-support treatment to Charlie at the couple’s home for days.
The issues include that his ventilator would not fit through their front door and so they said a better plan would be for Charlie to move to a hospice.
Mr Justice Francis analysed the dispute at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court on Tuesday and said he will make a decision on Wednesday if agreement cannot be reached.
He said having heard the evidence, the chances of Charlie’s parents’ wishes being fulfilled were small.
Charlie’s parents became embroiled in the new fight with doctors a day after abandoning attempts to persuade the judge to let their son travel to America for experimental treatment.
Barrister Grant Armstrong, who leads the couple’s legal team, suggested to Mr Justice Francis that hospital bosses were placing obstacles in Charlie’s parents’ way.
“The parents wish for a few days of tranquillity outside of a hospital setting,” Mr Armstrong said. “The parents had hoped that Great Ormond Street would work with them.”
He said the couple felt there was a “brutality” in taking Charlie to a hospice.
Barrister Katie Gollop QC, who leads Great Ormond Street’s legal team, said staff were not creating “obstacles”.
She said nothing could be further from the truth – she said staff had “moved heaven and earth” for Charlie. But she said the couple’s needs had to be balanced against Charlie’s best interests.
She said Great Ormond Street staff had found an “excellent hospice” which would give Charlie and his parents the space, privacy and protection they needed.
Mr Gard and Ms Yates, who are in their 30s and come from Bedfont, west London, had asked Mr Justice Francis to rule that Charlie should be allowed to undergo a therapy trial in New York. Doctors at Great Ormond Street said the therapy would not help. They said life-support treatment should stop.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel