FEDERATION ONE OF US calls for the Defense of the right to Life, the right to Human Dignity and personal integrity
Brussels 4th of July 2017
Last Friday, June 30th, was going to be the last day of British baby Charlie Gard’s ten-months life, as doctors at the London hospital where he was being treated decided to disconnect the baby from his life support. The child suffers Mitochondrial Exhaustion Syndrome.
British judges and the European Court of Human Rights have denied the possibility that Charlie may receive experimental treatment in the US as his parents requested, who have done everything possible to keep his son alive.
Judges and doctors said that the treatment would not be successful and that it is in the “interest of the child” to procure him a “dignified death”.
Hospital staff informed the parents “there will be no hurry” in disconnecting Charlie but in the end, this has not been true, the parents said. They denied their last will and, above all, parental authority is completely annulled by the State and institutions.
The impact of the video broadcasted by Charlie Gard’s parents, reporting the rush of Great Ormond Street Hospital to put an end to the life of their son without even letting them take him home before his death, has been finally effective andthey have got an extension, according to the Daily Mail, “a few more days”.
A worldwide prayer initiative, and a pressure campaign to the British and European authorities have been launched under the hashtag #JeSuisCharlieGard supported by the One of Us Federation.
This victory is the palpable proof of our argument: the time extension reveals that the situation of the baby is not a “therapeutic cruelty” as the doctors said, but a vital support. The baby is alive and will only die if disconnected from theartificial ventilator.
The British newspaper attributes this success to the intervention of Pope Francis: “Pope Francis helps the parents of Charlie Gard to gain more time to say goodbye to his dying son”. As the Vatican says ‘there is never a right to end deliberately a human life.”
The One of Us Federation declares:
Every human being has the right to fight for his life. Charlie and his parents are being deprived of their liberty to receive the treatment they deem appropriate. The State has no right to eliminate a child’s life or to exclude the parents’ will to fight for the life of their child. The case of baby Charlie also establishes a dangerous precedent against the defense of life and against the freedom of people with a disease. We cannot “eliminate” sick people and impede their will to fight for their life without giving them any hope.
European Federation “One of Us”
