Posted on 04/24/2018 12:55:21 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Remember the Charlie Gard case? Parents of the young child had to watch the National Health Service in the United Kingdom allow him to die after refusing to allow the child to leave the country for experimental treatment. The diagnosis was too dire and the case considered too terminal for parental wishes to be considered.
A ghastly rerun is taking place, this time with Alfie Evans, only this time the diagnosis is unclear — and he’s surviving on his own after a court ordered him removed from a ventilator:
Mr Justice Hayden also appeared to rule out his family’s wishes to take the 23-month-old to Italy for treatment.
Alfie has been at the centre of a life-or-death treatment battle, with his parents, Tom Evans and Kate James, trying to stop his doctors at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool from withdrawing life support in a sometimes acrimonious six-month dispute which has seen a series of court battles.
Last night life-support was withdrawn but Alfie, who has a degenerative neurological condition destroying his brain, has shocked medics by continuing to breathe unaided for nearly 24 hours with an air ambulance on stand by to fly the child to Italy.
But in a blow to Alfie’s parents and their supporters dubbed Alfie’s Army, Mr Justice Hayden, speaking to lawyers representing Alfie’s parents and Alder Hey Hospital, suggested he has ruled out further treatment in Italy or Germany.
The Associated Press reported earlier today that the Vatican had offered to provide Alfie with medical care. Italy granted Alfie citizenship to try to smooth the process, but the UK has dug in its heels:
The head of the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital said the Italian defense ministry had a plane ready to transport Alfie to Italy if he were allowed. In an interview with Italian Radio 24, Mariella Enoc, who travelled to Liverpool to personally try to intervene on behalf of the parents, said she spoke to the Italian ambassador in London who said the plane could leave with him in a matter of minutes.
On Monday, the Italian foreign ministry announced it had granted Alfie Italian citizenship to facilitate his arrival and transport. …
Alfie is in a “semi-vegetative state” as a result of a degenerative neurological condition doctors have been unable to identify. He was taken off life support after a series of court rulings backed doctors who said further treatment was futile.
Alfie’s parents, Evans, 21, and Kate James, 20, want to take him to the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital. Doctors at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital believe that would not be in the toddler’s best interests, and British courts have agreed.
And here we have the crux of the issue. One might understand if a state-controlled health care system decided that further treatment would take valuable resources from patients who would benefit more, but that’s not what is happening with Alfie. In this case as with Charlie Gard, the government has not only decided to stop providing any medical assistance to Alfie but to actively prevent his parents from seeking care elsewhere. And all this without a firm diagnosis, and with the curious description of semi-vegetative state, which appears to indicate brain activity is still taking place.
Why is it the court’s business if the parents seek treatment elsewhere, especially from qualified medical facilities like Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital? What does the UK lose if Alfie Evans gets on a plane? Nothing, except the power of life and death over its subjects and the potential for embarrassment if they are proven wrong. That’s already happened, as Alfie unexpectedly survived the withdrawal of the ventilator.
This is an evil decision. It should shame everyone connected to the system which allows such a decision to stand.
Alfie is the face of socialized medicine.
RE: Alfie is the face of socialized medicine.
When they did it to Charlie Gard, my Canadian friend “assured me” that it will never happen in Canada ( it hasn’t happened yet, God forbid ).
So cruel. Damn this judge and the abomination known as the NHS!
Does anyone remember the Olympics in Britain (2012), when part of their opening ceremony were “nurses” and “doctors” dancing around with bed pans in celebration of the NHS?
With a 2 thousand year history they chose to celebrate the NHS as who they are. Shame!
Can’t Italy demand that the NHS let Alfie, now an Italian citizen, be discharged from the hospital? In a sane country, what Alder Hay Hospital staff are doing, is kidnapping/false imprisonment. If he dies (as they apparently hope) they should be charged with murder.
Not just socialized medicine, but a socialist society in which the rights of the individual are subservient to the power of the state. Congratulations UK. You've replaced the hierarchy of royalty with the hierarchy of government. Honestly, the royalty were probably held more accountable.
I do not want the government to have power of life and death over citizens. It has taken that power by fooling people. It promised people wonderful free benefits, which they couldn’t resist. The price to pay was taxes and loss of freedom.
Government now decides if you will live or die through abortion, “healthcare” and euthanasia. It should not have that power.
The government took away this life.
Agree.
This is why we have the Second Amendment.
Of course he does. Their "god" the "state", cannot be allowed to be seen as fallible.
They are terrified that their government and it's ideas will be damaged by the continued survival of this young child against their will.
And to think that Obamacare was a US attempt to simultaneously install:
- the worst part of the Swiss system (mandates)
- the worst part of the UK system (tight cost controls, death panels)
- the worst part of the German system (consolidation of care into hospital systems)
Yes but while Alfie is the face of socialized healthcare, the puddles of blood outside and inside parliament are oddly missing?
The globalist tyrants are hell bent on letting anyone and everyone gain easy access to move into first-world countries, but they can certainly prevent free movement of law-abiding citizens when they want to.
NEVER LET IT HAPPEN HERE!!!
As the parent, after Alfies outcome at the hand of the judicial state, I would deliver the same outcome to the judge. With plyars and a torch.
Pikes for the lot of em.
Britain: This child must die.
Kinda like the Veterans Administration.
Your Canadian friend is lying to you. It happens all the time, because socialist medicine is the same wherever you go, in terms of viewing patients as costs.
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