{"id":6840,"date":"2017-06-30T13:17:54","date_gmt":"2017-06-30T19:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=6840"},"modified":"2017-07-02T17:02:12","modified_gmt":"2017-07-02T23:02:12","slug":"impending-death-charlie-gard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/06\/impending-death-charlie-gard.html","title":{"rendered":"The impending death of Charlie Gard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AGreat_Ormond_Street_Hospital.jpg;<\/p>\n

In the news this week, per the Daily Mail\u2019s usual wordy headline, \u201cTerminally ill baby Charlie Gard\u2019s parents \u2018utterly distraught\u2019 after losing final appeal in European court \u2013 meaning their son\u2019s life support WILL be switched off.<\/a>\u201d \u00a0This is the case of a British baby whose parents had sought to take him to the U.S. for treatment, after raising private funds to do so. \u00a0Not only would the British hospital not perform the experimental treatment, but they would not let the parents discharge him to bring him to the United States to do so.<\/p>\n

One\u2019s first impression is that this is a case of how far parental rights should go in determining appropriate medical treatment.<\/p>\n

In the same manner as a Christian Scientist, or a member of another faith-healing religion, might refuse to provide medical treatment for a child, and the court might step in to say, \u201cthis decision will produce severe harm to the child,\u201d so, too, the court has said, \u201cthe proposed treatment will harm the child, by causing an unacceptable degree of pain during the course of a treatment that is unlikely to succeed.\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s like those stories on Chicago Med, where the parents grasp at any extreme measure to keep the child alive, until they are wisely persuaded to let go.<\/p>\n

The Vatican\u2019s official statement<\/a> likewise seems to be proceeding from that understanding:<\/p>\n

The proper question to be raised in this and in any other unfortunately similar case is this: what are the best interests of the patient? We must do what advances the health of the patient, but we must also accept the limits of medicine and, as stated in paragraph 65 of the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, avoid aggressive medical procedures that are disproportionate to any expected results or excessively burdensome to the patient or the family.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But that wasn\u2019t really the case here.<\/p>\n

The proposed treatment in the U.S. was a red herring.<\/strong> \u00a0This isn\u2019t really about \u201caggressive medical procedures.\u201d \u00a0This is certainly not about the NHS considering it morally wrong to spend so much money, even if it\u2019s someone else\u2019s money.<\/p>\n

What really seemed to have happened is that the court decided that, because of the severity of his impairment, the child should not continue to live. \u00a0It was not the treatment that was a \u201cburden\u201d but the very fact that Charlie lived, was considered to be a burden to him.<\/p>\n

According to the Telegraph<\/a>,<\/p>\n

Katie Gollop QC, who led Great Ormond Street\u2019s legal team, suggested that further treatment would leave Charlie in a \u201ccondition of existence\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said therapy proposed in the USA was \u201cexperimental\u201d and would not help Charlie.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is significant harm if what the parents want for Charlie comes into effect,\u201d she told appeal judges. \u201cThe significant harm is a condition of existence which is offering the child no benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIt is inhuman to permit that condition to continue.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the court, and all possible appeals courts, agreed \u2014 the State had the final right to decide that this child was, indeed, \u201cbetter off dead,\u201d though these words are not used.<\/p>\n

What does the UK (or the EU, in general) do in other cases of people impaired to this most extreme degree? \u00a0It would seem that this reasoning would require them to \u201cpull the plug\u201d (that is, remove a ventilator) in all such similar cases, whenever a doctor determines that there is no hope of improvement. \u00a0What actually happens in practice I am unable to find without more extensive research.<\/p>\n

Now, I don\u2019t believe that one is morally obligated to keep the ventilator going. \u00a0I think this is an appropriate matter for personal choice. \u00a0It\u2019s also not clear whether, in the case of an adult in similar circumstances, or if it were a matter of withdrawing nutrition rather than breathing support, the State would make the same decision.<\/p>\n

But their reasoning, that it is \u201cinhuman\u201d to allow Charlie to continue to live, is deeply disturbing.<\/p>\n

Added: \u00a0the commenter Locke observed that there is a financial element to this, even if not with respect to the cost of the treatment itself, because, upon returning to the U.K., the NHS would be obliged to bear the expenses of caring for Charlie, for some unknown period of time. \u00a0Charlie is thus, in their eyes, not just \u201cbetter off dead\u201d but a \u201cuseless eater\u201d as well.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: \u00a0According to the AP<\/a>, the Vatican, or, that is, Pope Francis specifically, has \u201cchanged its mind\u201d or, at the very least, clarified its view.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Vatican press office said Francis \u201cis following with affection and sadness the case of little Charlie Gard and expresses his closeness to his parents. For this he prays that their wish to accompany and treat their child until the end is not neglected.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It would also seem that there is a matter of factual dispute. \u00a0The Telegraph article states, \u201d nobody knew whether Charlie was in pain,\u201d and, indeed, the hospital\u2019s argument was not a matter of pain but simply that the life of anyone who is as severely disabled as this boy is, is not a \u201creal life\u201d and should not continue.<\/p>\n

But The Guardian<\/a> reports of the European Court\u2019s decision, in contrast,<\/p>\n

It said: \u201cThe domestic courts had concluded, on the basis of extensive, high-quality expert evidence, that it was most likely Charlie was being exposed to continued pain, suffering and distress and that undergoing experimental treatment with no prospects of success would offer no benefit, and continue to cause him significant harm.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Is Charlie in pain? \u00a0Did the European Court believe that he was in pain? \u00a0Or did they use this possibility, however hypothetical it might be, as a justification for their decision?<\/p>\n

Because there is a difference. \u00a0It does matter. \u00a0Parents who cart their child from one doctor to the next hoping for a lifesaving treatment, when that child lives in pain, could reasonably be said to be making inappropriate decisions. \u00a0Doctors, or governments, on the other hand, who want to terminate the life of a child, because they consider that life \u201cunworthy of life,\u201d should never have that power.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: now noncopyrighted images of Charlie are available. \u00a0This is Great Ormond Street Hospital. https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AGreat_Ormond_Street_Hospital.jpg; Nigel Cox [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the news this week, per the Daily Mail\u2019s usual wordy headline, \u201cTerminally ill baby Charlie Gard\u2019s parents \u2018utterly distraught\u2019 after losing final appeal in European court \u2013 meaning their son\u2019s life support WILL be switched off.\u201d \u00a0This is the case of a British baby whose parents had sought to take him to the U.S. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":6847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[670,669,341],"class_list":["post-6840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-better-off-dead","tag-euthanasia","tag-nhs"],"yoast_head":"\nThe impending death of Charlie Gard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the news this week, per the Daily Mail's usual wordy headline, "Terminally ill baby Charlie Gard's parents 'utterly 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