Parents of Charlie Gard, Ill British Infant, Abandon Effort to Prolong His Life
"For Charlie it is too late: The damage has been done," Mr. Armstrong, the parent’s lawyer, told the court on Monday.
By DAN BILEFSKYJULY 24, 2017
LONDON — The parents of Charlie Gard, the chronically ill British infant whose plight drew attention from Pope Francis
and President Trump, on Monday gave up their wrenching legal effort to artificially prolong his life, bowing to the consensus of medical experts who said there was no realistic chance of saving him.
On Friday, after the lawyer for the hospital said Charlie’s latest brain scan made
for "sad reading," Mr. Gard yelled, "Evil!" and Ms. Yates burst into tears.
Dr. Hirano had held out the prospect that the treatment, known as nucleoside bypass therapy, might offer a slim chance of
improving the child’s ability to breathe, though he also acknowledged that Charlie had suffered significant brain damage.
Breaking into tears as she stood in court, the child’s mother, Connie Yates, said she and her husband, Chris Gard, "only wanted to give him a chance of life." She added
that "we have decided to let our son go" because there was no prospect of meaningful improvement in his quality of life.
"We are more sorry than I have words to say," the hospital’s lawyer, Katie Gollop, told the parents in court.
