Doctors can withdraw life-support treatment for an eight-month old baby, Charlie Gard, who suffers a rare genetic condition and has brain damage, the High Court has held.
The baby’s condition causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage. After carefully considering evidence for three days, Mr Justice Francis said it was in Charlie’s best interests for artificial ventilation to be withdrawn, for him not to undergo nucleoside therapy and for him to be provided with palliative care only.
He paid tribute to the “absolute dedication” of Charlie’s parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, who had managed to crowdfund £1.2m to seek experimental treatment in the US.
In reaching his decision in GOSH v Gard (Case No. FD17P00103), Francis J applied the “intellectual milestones” set out in Wyatt v Portsmouth NHS Trust [2005] EWHC 117 (Fam) to decide the child’s best interests, “looking at the question from the assumed point of view of the child”.
He said the parents had “sadly, but bravely, acknowledged that the quality of life that Charlie has at present is not worth sustaining”. After discussion with doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), the US doctor had agreed any improvement was “unlikely”. There was unanimity among experts that nucleoside therapy could not reverse structural brain damage. The GOSH doctors said they believed Charlie was experiencing pain.
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