Doctors can withdraw life-support treatment from a baby with a rare genetic condition against his parents' wishes, a High Court judge has ruled.
There was a scream of 'no' in the court as the decision about eight-month-old Charlie Gard's care was announced by Mr Justice Francis, who had analysed evidence over three days and had visited the child at Great Ormond Street Hospital
Specialists at the hospital in London think it is time to stop providing life support treatment for Charlie.
Doctors say the boy, who suffers from a rare genetic condition and has brain damage, should move to a palliative care regime.
But Charlie's parents, who are both in their early 30s, disagree.
Postman Chris Gard and Connie Yates, of Bedfont, west London, want to be allowed to take him to a hospital in the US for a treatment trial.
Mr Justice Francis ruled that life-support treatment should stop after analysing evidence at a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London.
Charlie, who was born on August 4, 2016, has a form of mitochondrial disease, a condition which causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage.
His parents launched an appeal on the GoFundMe website two months ago, saying they needed £1.2 million to fund treatment.
They reached their target on Sunday and more than 80,000 people have donated money.
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 hereComments are closed on this article