Posted on 05/01/2018 5:55:32 PM PDT by ebb tide
British Prime Minister Theresa May has finally weighed in on the Alfie Evans case, offering condolences to the family but ultimately siding with Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
During a visit to Brooklands Primary School in Sale, Greater Manchester on Monday, May received a question as to whether she would support Alfie’s Law, legislation proposed by British Member of European Parliament Steven Woolfe to restore parental rights over medical decisions in similar cases.
Alfie died Saturday at Alder Hey, which had removed his ventilator five days earlier in defiance of his parents’ wishes. Alfie’s doctors said he had an undiagnosed and untreatable neurological condition that caused serious and irreparable brain damage.
For months, parents Tom Evans and Kate James fought the hospital in court to keep him alive and transfer him to a willing hospital in Italy, but were denied at every turn. The 23-month-old boy’s second birthday would have been May 9.
“The MEP Steven Wolff is campaigning for Alfie’s Law, which would give parents the final say over their child’s life. Is that something you would potentially support or get behind?” a reporter from Global Radio asked. The prime minister didn’t answer, but spoke more generally about the case.
“It’s a tragic case, all of us feel enormously for the parents of Alfie,” May said. “This is a great tragedy to have to go through, the death of a child and particularly to see this happen in this way.”
At the same time, however, she maintained it was “important that decisions about medical support that are given to children and to others are made by clinicians who are expert in that matter.”
Last summer, May refused to intervene in the similar case of Charlie Gard, another sick UK infant who died at the age of eleven months after authorities denied his parents the opportunity to seek treatment outside the country.
“[N]o doctor ever wants to be placed in the terrible position where they have to make such heartbreaking decisions," May claimed at the time. “I'm confident that Great Ormond Street Hospital have and always will consider any offers or new information that has come forward with consideration of the well-being of a desperately ill child."
Last week, Tom Evans told the Daily Star that May “could be doing so much more to save my Alfie,” but lamented that she was “not interested in one of the biggest priorities that could potentially cause uproar for this country in the future.”
“That’s the way we treat children with disabilities in this country,” Evans said. “We’ve tried everything to reach out to the government. Through MEPs, everything.”
Woolfe, who has repeatedly advocated for Alfie throughout the ordeal, penned an op-ed on Saturday in The Independent making the case for Alfie’s Law.
He explained that it would give parents an impartial advocate to represent their interests from the beginning of any decision-making process, provide financial aid if legal appeals become necessary, and guarantees parents the right to a second opinion from a medical professional of their choice, who is independent from the British National Health Service and whose assessment must carry equal weight in court.
“We cannot go on treating parents as bystanders, little more than unrelated and largely unwanted visitors when it comes to the decisions made by doctors and the courts,” Woolfe wrote. “The government has the power to act, and it must do so.”
One more reason that I hate the Brits.
Spoken like a true fascist control freak.
The Brits aren’t expert at anything..
Where was the head of the Church of England (the Queen)
giving her opinion on the euthanasia of an infant (apparently death by injection)
and where was the head of state (the Queen) on the detention of an Italian family and forbidding them to leave the country?
Experts decide?
Y’know, it is about time the Brits started shooting these people.
Oh, wait...
The world has not had experts on the medical killing of children since Dr. Mengele retired. I’m not sure it reassures me to know that an expert on “end of life decisions” decided on death as the appropriate fate for this toddler.
The only thing making them experts is the huge armament protecting their speech and testimony while there was none for the opposit side.
What a disgusting and obsene doubling down arrogant travesty this is
The British government effectively kidnapped little Alfie.
Weren't these "experts" certain that he would die almost immediately after being removed from the respirator?
I think that is the sort of mistake that proves they are not actually "experts."
I most sincerely hope that one day very soon an expert decides her fate.
L
Between abortion and infanticide, the British are committing national suicide.
The Islamist know all they have to do is....breed.
(And we are not far behind...)
Withholding medical care for cost benefit reasons is one thing, but forcing death when there is an alternative at no cost to the system is simply murder. In this case the government would bear no additional responsibility and study results might have benefited similar cases in the future. I can not imagine the anger and frustration of the parents and hope that something positive will come out of this.
No? They were absolute experts at bad automotive electrics! Ever hear of Lucas Electrical Systems?
Theresa May is a reptile.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.