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by TheGirondin 3263 days ago
I trust the government even less. Charlie Gard is a good example - the UK government has not only decided that he should die, but that his parents are barred from bringing him to another country for treatment.

On top that, the UK is saying that he has to die at the hospital and that his parents can't bring him home on hospice.
4 comments
jshevek 3263 days ago
It's amazing that the hospital has the authority to deny the parents the ability to bring the child home.

They may be tending to a vegetable, but unless they endanger anyone they are entitled to this.

More importantly - hospitals can make mistakes, and any entity with power might eventually abuse it. It is frightening that the hospital has this much power over this family.

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lazyasciiart 3263 days ago
The hospital is being backed up by the British and European court systems, and it seems pretty reasonable that those groups together all have this power. If the court had disagreed with the hospital then the hospital would not have had this ability.

> unless they endanger anyone they are entitled to this In Britain, the rights of the child are considered to pre-empt the rights of their parent to control them. In this case, the doctors argue (and the courts have agreed) that the parents are asking to do something that will cause pain to the child for no benefit to it.

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DanBC 3263 days ago
> It's amazing that the hospital has the authority to deny the parents the ability to bring the child home.

It doesn't. The courts do, and the parents got good quality legal advice (pro bono, which is a problem, there's an argument for these kinds of cases to have some legal aid).

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inopinatus 3263 days ago
No. The Charlie Gard case is an horrific example of how easily grief and desperation are exploited with false hope.

Your corruption of the facts - the UK's government has not "decided he should die" - is an echo of that exploitation.

It is the same construct that leads the unwell to adopt dangerous or ineffective remedies from quacks and snake oil merchants, only in this case it is being leveraged by political and religious groups to further their own agenda.

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TheGirondin 3263 days ago
No. Real hospitals in the US and in Italy have offered to treat him, but the UK has indeed decided he should die and preventing the parents from bringing him to those hospitals.
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inopinatus 3263 days ago
No. You have moved beyond emotive mis-statement into lying. You are repeating propaganda. The Italian proposal is a bad joke. It is a Vatican hospital with no experience in this field, with no hope of offering any treatment, and is simply grandstanding on behalf of the Pope. As things stand, the UK has not "decided he should die". The UK High Court and Supreme Courts - not government - accepted that he is dying, and that any attempt to prolong life would be cruel. The US hospital proposal may be serious and is under consideration by UK courts, but it too has nevertheless been hijacked by uncomprehending US politicians.

In all this I feel mostly for the parents. Their pain and desperation has been used by cynical opportunists for column inches, and that is just revolting.

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DanBC 3263 days ago
At least one of those hospitals withdrew support after seeing brain scans which show massive brain damage.

And it's not the government, it's the courts who are independent of the government. One of the courts was outside the UK.

In the UK courts the case was between the parents and the hospital. In the European court the case was between the parents and the UK.

Read this for more: http://www.transparencyproject.org.uk/charlie-gard-update/

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CalRobert 3263 days ago
One thing - can someone explain to me at what point the hospital becomes a prison?

It feels like I'm missing some utter, basic detail because I keep thinking "so why not just pick up your child, even with the hospital complaining, walk out the front door, and go to <wherever you want to go>"?

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lazyasciiart 3262 days ago
Same reason you can't do that when the court says your child needs treatment and you don't want them to have it - the state intervenes on behalf of the child and overrides your parental rights.
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DanBC 3263 days ago
The government hasn't said this. A bunch of different courts (some outside the UK) have said this.
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