Charlie Gard treatment controversy

Charlie Gard (born 4 August 2016) is a British boy with a rare genetic condition known as mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome (MDDS). His parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates from Bedfont, Middlesex, campaigned to keep him alive on life support and travel to the United States for experimental treatment despite doctors and judges saying it would cause him "significant harm".
A legal dispute between Gard and Yates and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children resulted in the law courts ruling in favour of the hospital and against the parents' wishes. The courts considered that it was in the infant's best interests for his treating clinicians to withdraw mechanical ventilation and provide him with palliative care only. The Court of Appeal, on 25 May 2017, refused to overturn the decision of the lower court in its ruling.
The case was further discussed by the UK Supreme Court which agreed with the previous rulings. A final legal appeal was made to the European Court of Human Rights by Gard and Yates. This was also rejected. In June 2017, the request of Gard and Yates to take him home to die was denied by the hospital. Continuing specialist monitoring and medication would be necessary to minimise suffering and pain if the child were removed from the specialist unit. The interests of the child must take precedence in these circumstances. It was later announced that his life support would be withdrawn on 30 June. On 30 June 2017, the staff at Great Ormond Street agreed to give Gard and Yates more time with him.
On July 3 the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu Hospital, in Rome, Italy, offered to continue to provide palliative end-of-life care to the infant if the United Kingdom reversed course and decided to allow it. Pope Francis, through a message given by the Vatican press office, said the defence of vulnerable human life, such as the infant's, at all stages, was the duty of everyone.

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