Thread: The British Government is Sentencing Another Sick Child to Death, Against the Wishes

The British Government is Sentencing Another Sick Child to Death, Against the Wishes of His Parents

April 14, 2018

Written by Onan Coca

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Another HORRIBLE story from the UK.

The British government is sentencing another child to death because their socialist healthcare system refuses to do everything they can to save the child’s life… and they won’t let the parents look for outside help.

From the Daily Caller News Foundation:

U.K. Police blocked Alfie Evans’ parents from taking him out of the hospital after Alfie’s father obtained an attorney’s letter advising him to do so.

Tom Evans and Kate James, Alfie Evans’ parents, filed a last-minute appeal earlier on Thursday for their son to be allowed to receive treatment at hospitals in Germany or Italy. Their efforts are against the U.K. High Court’s final ruling Alfie would be taken off life support on April 13, according to Life Site News. Tom, however, obtained a letter from attorney Pavel Stroilov of the Christian Legal Centre, which has been representing Tom and Kate in court, advising Tom he could legally remove Alfie from the hospital, according to Life Site News. Tom attempted to do so, but Alder Hey Hospital called the police, who ultimately blocked Tom and Kate from retrieving their son.

Charlenesheppard@Charlen62835322


#AlfiesArmy GET THIS OUT THERE FAST @Alfiesarmy16 @Steven_Woolfe @BBCNews @SkyNews @catholicnews1 @FoxNews @5_News @itvnews @cnnbrk @cnalive @LivEchonews @Pontifex @Pontifex_pt #savealfieevans
2:06 PM - Apr 12, 2018

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The U.K. High Court, U.K. Appeals Court, and European Court of Human Rights all ruled against Tom and Kate’s desires over the last several months to have Alfie treated for an unknown neurological degenerative condition the hospital said reduced Alfie to a vegetative state. Alfie, however, is still responsive — videos prove his cognitive functions are actually progressing, his parents argue. Nevertheless, the courts and the hospital maintain treating Alfie is futile and thus will not allow the parents to seek treatment for their son anywhere else.

Tom and Kate’s family friend posted a video Thursday of police and hospital staff blocking them from removing Alfie from medical grounds, despite Stroilov’s letter.

“I have a documentation saying that I have the right to take my son out of this hospital,” Tom said in a video posted to Twitter.

Tom and Kate had the right to remove Alfie from the hospital according to U.K. law, the letter explained. An individual has the right to self discharge; but since Alfie is a minor, his parents may make that decision — especially since they voluntarily brought him to the hospital originally. The staff at Alder Hey Hospital would remove Alfie from life support on July 13, the U.K. High Court ruled. The ruling did not technically prevent Tom and Kate from choosing to take Alfie out of the hospital, Stroilov argued. “You have asked me to clarify whether it would be legal for you to remove your son, Alfie, from Alder Hey Hospital without the Hospital’s consent. In Alfie’s situation, that would only be practical with the support of a team of medical professionals with the necessary life support equipment.

Subject to that, I can confirm that such a removal would be lawful under English law. Alfie is only in hospital because you, his parents, voluntarily sought its healthcare services. Alfie retains the right to self-discharge from hospital. He is not imprisoned there. Because of his minority, it is for you, as his parents, to make a decision to self-discharge or to stay at hospital.

The effect of the declaratory orders made by Mr. Justice Hayden in the High Court is to make it lawful for Alder Hey to withdraw his artificial ventilation treatment and to protect Alder Hay and its staff from legal liability for that step. It is not the intention or effect of the order to circumvent Alfie’s personal liberty or your parental rights. It remains lawful for an alternative team of medical professionals, with your parental consent, to provide such medical treatment to Alfie as they professionally deem to be appropriate,” the letter stated, according to Life Site News.

The police, however, would not budge. Alfie remains in the hospital, set to die on court order on July 13.

“Alder Hey is stopping us. Alder Hey is calling the police. To murder my son. Alder Hey has phoned the police to stop me from taking my son out of the hospital. This is my son. Look at my healthy, healthy young boy who’s undiagnosed and is certainly not dying. There’s the ventilator. We have all the equipment,” Tom added in his video.

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The finally has filed one last appeal, but if recent history teaches us anything, it’s that the British government doesn’t care about protecting their citizens or their rights.

From the Daily Caller News Foundation:

The parents of Alfie Evans filed a last-minute appeal Wednesday for their son to receive treatment outside the U.K. instead of shutting off his life-support.

Tom Evans and Kate James filed their appeal on behalf of their son after Mr. Justice Anthony Hayden of the U.K. High Court set a date for Alder Hey Hospital staff to shut off Alfie’s life support, effectively sentencing him to die, according to LifeSite News. Hayden chose to keep the date of Alfie’s impending death private; but while the U.K. press refused to publish the date, Italian newspaper La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana reported Hayden set April 13 as Alfie’s final day of life.

Alfie was born in May 2016 without complication but developed a chest infection in December of the same year, for which his parents brought him to Alder Hey hospital. Alfie’s condition deteriorated as he developed an unknown neurological degenerative condition reducing him to what the hospital called a “semi-vegetable state.” Alfie’s treatment should continue, Tom and Kate argued. When hospital staff told them continuing to treat their son would be “futile,” they requested him to be transferred to the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital.

The hospital sought guidance from the U.K. High Court in February. Hayden agreed with the hospital’s assessment of Alfie’s condition and ruled continued treatment for Alfie would be “unkind, unfair and inhumane.” Since that Feb. 20 ruling, the U.K. Appeals Court and the European Court of Human Rights have ruled against Tom and Kate’s wishes to take their son to hospitals in Italy or Germany that have offered to treat him.

The issue was a matter of parental rights and Alfie’s parents ought to not only have the right to take their child to a different hospital but also to choose the time and place his life support is shut off, Tom and Kate’s lawyer, Paul Diamond of the Christian Legal Centre, argued during the April 11 hearing concerning the date of Alfie’s death.

Alfie’s parents had “primary responsibility for their son and full parental rights,” Diamond said. He also presented a video before the court, which he claimed showed Alfie had improved cognition. Hayden reportedly ignored Diamond’s arguments and expressed concern about the online distribution of Alfie videos, citing the child’s privacy, according to Life Site.

“[Alfie] has no say over those videos being taken and put on the Internet,” Hayden said, according to Life Site. “Those videos strike me as at times intrusive of his privacy.”

Hayden also accused Tom of compromising his son’s identity, saying he must have been driven to do so by “distress and confusion.”

Tom and Kate, however, remain stalwart in their fight for Alfie’s life, according to Chief Executive of Christian Legal Centre Andrea Williams.

“Thomas and Kate never leave Alfie’s side. They witness to his increasing responsiveness. The state cannot override their desire to seek further treatment for their son especially when such help is being offered by three different hospitals. The state must not pass and enforce a death sentence. Even at this eleventh hour, with heavy odds against us, we will fight to the end alongside Tom and Kate for their son’s life,” a statement from Williams read, according to Life Site.

Tom and Kate hope the court will hear their appeal later on Thursday, they said.

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This is socialist healthcare folks. This is what liberals want to bring to America.

It’s basic economics, with socialist healthcare there are more sick people than there is money to heal them, so “sacrifices” have to be made…. usually by the poor and unconnected.

Do we really want such an ugly and heartless system here? Especially when capitalism could allow us to fight for every life?

I don’t think so.


https://eaglerising.com/57146/the-br...f-his-parents/

The State-Ordered Killing of Young Alfie Evans

By JOHN O'SULLIVANApril 23, 2018 9:43 PM

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Thomas Evans, father of Alfie Evans, attends Pope Francis’ Wednesday general audience in Saint Peter’s square at the Vatican, April 18, 2018. REUTERS/Max Rossi

(Max Rossi/Reuters)When I was nine years old, I spent almost a year of my brief life in Alder Hey hospital, Liverpool, being cured of tuberculosis. The care and treatment I got from the doctors, nurses, and stern matrons of those days was of the highest quality then available, and I’m grateful for it still. Not only did it cure me, but it meant I never developed a fear of hospitals that afflicts some people. My time in hospital also gave me a lifelong addiction to reading.

So I’ve paid some attention to the case of Alfie Evans, the little boy whose brain has been largely destroyed by a mysterious illness and who as a result is dependent for his continued life on feeding and breathing machines in the same hospital. That life seems likely to end in the next few days because a succession of British and European courts has refused to allow his parents to remove him from Alder Hey to receive further treatment either at home or in an Italian hospital that would continue treating him. The last legal twist was delivered earlier today when the European Court of Human Rights declined to hear a final appeal from the parents. That meant that a judgment of the U.K. Supreme Court of three days ago will stand, Alfie will remain at Alder Hey, the machines keeping him alive will be turned off, and Alfie will die quite soon.

The final judgment of the U.K. Supreme Court can be read here.

It’s short summary of the history and legal facts of the case, clearly written, and worth reading. Much of it is generally agreed on by all parties — the parents, the courts, the doctors treating Alfie, and the hospital. For instance, it is “a desperately sad case.” But there are two important points that need unwrapping. The first is that, as the courts say in several ways, the interests of the child, Alfie, should be “paramount.” That is said to be the “gold standard” of judgment concerning cases involving minors, whether a custody settlement in a divorce case or a dispute over the child’s medical care as here. This gold standard is the rule not only in the U.K. but also in Europe and internationally, which, the court says, strengthens the force of its decision in this case.

An obvious problem with this argument, however, is that Alfie is both a minor and incapable physically of judging his own interests. Until quite recently — indeed, I think it may still be listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — the parents had the right to determine what was in the best interests of the child. Confronting this right in its judgment, the court pointed out that the Custody of Children Act in 1891 had severely qualified this parental right (and, incidentally, obligation). The courts would not give a parent full custody, for instance, if he had abandoned or deserted the child or conducted himself in some way as to show him to be a danger to the child. That legal change was later strengthened by other Acts of Parliament with the overall result that the state now ultimately exercises parental power over the child while, so to speak, leasing out that right to the actual parents on a day-to-day basis. This “gold standard” of the “paramount” interests of the child is the basis, for instance, of the intervention of the courts to prevent parents, usually for religious reasons, from refusing blood transfusions needed to save a child’s life.

That is not what’s happening here, however. It is Alfie’s parents who want to continue the medical services that are keeping Alfie alive, and it is the courts that insist on switching off the machines. The court says so explicitly in relation to earlier court decisions in the clearest possible way: “It had been decided, after careful examination of the evidence, that it was not in his best interest for the treatment which sustained his life to be continued or for him to be taken by air ambulance to another country for this purpose.” And it is far from clear that the court’s decision is in Alfie’s interest or that it should be the court’s decision at all.

After all, the court itself concedes that Alfie’s actual parents are good and loving parents. They are not the brutal, cold, or neglectful parents who were the justification for transferring parental rights to the courts in 1891. On the contrary they have made heroic efforts to find other doctors and another hospital that will treat their child — and they have succeeded. Why should not they, rather than judges or doctors, be the best judges of Alfie’s paramount interests?

And that question gains greater force from the court’s decision. It is, after all, a death sentence. What is it saving Alfie from? He does not appear to be in pain. Removing Alfie to an Italian hospital would not deprive other young patients in Alder Hey from benefiting from the medical treatments he currently receives. The reason seems to be that both court and doctors feel he will never recover or live without the permanent help of advanced medical assistance — and that keeping him alive for longer is thus essentially pointless.

COMMENTS

This argument is not absurd, but it is not compelling, either. Most people would agree that whoever has the responsibility for looking after Alfie is not morally obliged to maintain heroic medical measures indefinitely. Surely, however, they are entitled to do so if they wish. And Alfie’s parents wish to do everything to keep their son alive as long as they can in the hope, I suppose, of a miracle. It should be their decision, not that of judges, however distinguished, or of doctors, however skilled.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corne...g-alfie-evans/

British Appeals Court Agrees To Hear Alfie Evans Case

ED MORRISSEYPosted at 10:01 am on April 25, 2018




As Alfie Evans valiantly struggles to stay alive, his legal hopes of traveling outside of the UK for treatment got an unexpected boost. After what appeared to be a final ruling from the court yesterday that denied Evans’ parents the opportunity to use the air ambulance standing by to carry the child to Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital at the Vatican, the Evans’ attorneys got contacted by a judge explaining that they could launch another appeal. The case will get heard again this afternoon:

Sir Andrew McFarlane, will head a panel of three Court of Appeal judges due to hear arguments about the 23-month-old at a hearing in London on Wednesday afternoon.
A spokeswoman for the Christian Legal Centre said the judge would be asked to allow medical experts in Italy to examine Alfie.

Alfie’s parents have already lost two rounds of fights, in the High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.

The chances of a reversal is likely somewhere between slim and none, given the precedents in British courts, but it does at least represent another opportunity for common sense to prevail. The Evanses are not arguing for more treatment from the British medical system; all they want is to have the opportunity to seek treatment elsewhere. That costs the UK nothing at all while preserving the parents as the primary authority for the child. Absent evidence of abuse or neglect, the parents should have priority on deciding what is best for their child, especially when the government-run health care system is attempting to impose a regime of fatal neglect onto their child.

It’s somewhat mystifying as to why the courts have ruled against the Evanses. Doctors have no specific diagnosis, and their prognosis — that Alfie couldn’t live off the ventilator — has already been proven wrong. Eventually he’ll die without medical care, but that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Some doctors in the UK have also raised these same questions. The chair of the Medical Ethics Alliance has dozens of doctors co-signing a letter demanding an end to “medical tyranny,” and pointing out that viable alternatives still exist for Alfie:

“The parents are being tortured as they watch the hospital take actions expected to lead to his death,” said the April 24 letter, which was co-signed by nearly 60 others, including a number of prominent Catholic doctors.
“Despite a viable alternative being available (namely transfer by air ambulance for further assessment to a specialist hospital in Rome), the hospital and doctors responsible for his care insist that he remains under their care and on a pathway toward death,” the letter said.

“While he now has some oxygen and some fluid, this has taken huge effort to obtain for him,” it said.
The letter continued: “Actions such as these have now brought the Alder Hey (Children’s) Hospital to worldwide attention and, by extension, bring our whole profession into disrepute.”

“Medical tyranny must stop,” it said. “Poor Alfie must not be killed in this way,” they said, demanding his safe passage to Rome.

World leaders have begun questioning the logic here, too. Pope Francis put out an appeal for British courts to let Alfie leave, and Polish president Andrzej Duda declared this morning that “Alfie must be saved!”

Andrzej Duda@AndrzejDuda

Alfie Evans must be saved! His brave little body has proved again that the miracle of life can be stronger than death. Perhaps all that's needed is some good will on the part of decision makers. Alfie, we pray for you and your recovery!

4:11 AM - Apr 25, 2018

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Good will seems in short supply. For some reason, British courts have more interest in protecting doctors’ reputations than allowing parents to choose to find medical treatment outside the country for their sick children. If the appeals court chooses otherwise, it would be a very large — and very welcome — surprise.

https://hotair.com/archives/2018/04/...tm_campaign=nl

Will just provide link to following story because of its length:

Alfie Evans is 'struggling' two days after being taken off life support, court hears as judge reveals boy's father is trying to get Alder Hey doctors prosecuted for conspiracy to MURDER

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz5Dhc96vn2
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

British Government’s Efforts To Starve Two-Year-Old To Death Still Momentarily Unsuccessful

ALLAHPUNDITPosted at 7:05 pm on April 24, 2018



Alfie Evans is alive as of 6:30 p.m. ET but I think the UK has the stick-to-it-iveness needed to see this through to the bitter end.

With Alfie having been made an Italian citizen for purposes of receiving treatment and transportation standing by to take him to his new home, his mother and father have been forced to resort to giving him mouth-to-mouth to try to keep him alive awhile longer, in hopes that the courts will to come to their senses.

ALFIE Evans’ parents are tonight giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in a desperate bid to keep him alive after a court ruled he cannot be flown to Italy for treatment.

Tom Evans said he and Alfie’s mum Kate have been forced to help Alfie’s breathing after “his lips turned blue”…
Responding tonight, a weary Tom said: “I’ve got an uncle that could just do everything that the nurses do down to a tee and he’s medically trained to do this so I’m just going to keep on fighting for Alfie”
.

The nominal principle at stake here is that doctors are better guardians of the child’s best interest than his parents are. In this case, the child’s “best interest” is supposedly to starve or to suffocate to death rather than be treated by Italian doctors even though it’s unclear that he’s in any pain. Somehow no chance of survival is better for Alfie, in his doctors’ opinions, than a small chance. And that’s that.

The actual principle at stake, of course, is this:

Here’s the thing. At some point it’s not about money for the UK. It’s about making a point about the dangers of challenging govt power over your life. They’ll have the kid die to make a point about their control rather than let Italy take him. https://twitter.com/joshhalliday/status/988837312854405121 …
2:22 PM - Apr 24, 2018

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The reason they don’t want Alfie Evans to go to Italy is *because* the Italian doctors might be able to do something for him. Imagine the shaken faith among Brits in their own doctors’ and courts’ judgment if, after essentially sentencing a toddler to death, that sentence was shown to have been in error. The boy needs to die because it’s crucially important for their judgment to be vindicated.

This point is fair too:

Alex Griswold
✔@HashtagGriswold

While I'm mostly seeing pro-life activists calling attention to the Alfie Evans case, let me suggest it's in the interest of the pro-choice community as well. What meaningful "reproductive freedom" can there be if the government can mandate the death of your offspring?
5:34 PM - Apr 24, 2018

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Well, most pro-choicers are statists. Forced to choose between parental choice and state power over health in a system that recognizes the right to abortion, which are they apt to choose? There’s no conflict from their perspective.

Here’s Alfie’s father speaking this afternoon outside the hospital. His accent is a bit tough to decipher at times but stick with it. He mentions mouth to mouth in the first half.



https://hotair.com/archives/2018/04/...tm_campaign=nl

Breaking: UK Judge Denies Parents Request To Take Son To Italy For Medical Treatment

ED MORRISSEYPosted at 3:33 pm on April 24, 2018




Remember the Charlie Gard case? Parents of the young child had to watch the National Health Service in the United Kingdom allow him to die after refusing to allow the child to leave the country for experimental treatment. The diagnosis was too dire and the case considered too terminal for parental wishes to be considered.

A ghastly rerun is taking place, this time with Alfie Evans, only this time the diagnosis is unclear — and he’s surviving on his own after a court ordered him removed from a ventilator:

Mr Justice Hayden also appeared to rule out his family’s wishes to take the 23-month-old to Italy for treatment.
Alfie has been at the centre of a life-or-death treatment battle, with his parents, Tom Evans and Kate James, trying to stop his doctors at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool from withdrawing life support in a sometimes acrimonious six-month dispute which has seen a series of court battles.

Last night life-support was withdrawn but Alfie, who has a degenerative neurological condition destroying his brain, has shocked medics by continuing to breathe unaided for nearly 24 hours with an air ambulance on stand by to fly the child to Italy.

But in a blow to Alfie’s parents and their supporters dubbed Alfie’s Army, Mr Justice Hayden, speaking to lawyers representing Alfie’s parents and Alder Hey Hospital, suggested he has ruled out further treatment in Italy or Germany.

The Associated Press reported earlier today that the Vatican had offered to provide Alfie with medical care. Italy granted Alfie citizenship to try to smooth the process, but the UK has dug in its heels:

The head of the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital said the Italian defense ministry had a plane ready to transport Alfie to Italy if he were allowed. In an interview with Italian Radio 24, Mariella Enoc, who travelled to Liverpool to personally try to intervene on behalf of the parents, said she spoke to the Italian ambassador in London who said the plane could leave with him in a matter of minutes.

On Monday, the Italian foreign ministry announced it had granted Alfie Italian citizenship to facilitate his arrival and transport. …

Alfie is in a “semi-vegetative state” as a result of a degenerative neurological condition doctors have been unable to identify. He was taken off life support after a series of court rulings backed doctors who said further treatment was futile.
Alfie’s parents, Evans, 21, and Kate James, 20, want to take him to the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital. Doctors at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital believe that would not be in the toddler’s best interests, and British courts have agreed.

And here we have the crux of the issue. One might understand if a state-controlled health care system decided that further treatment would take valuable resources from patients who would benefit more, but that’s not what is happening with Alfie. In this case as with Charlie Gard, the government has not only decided to stop providing any medical assistance to Alfie but to actively prevent his parents from seeking care elsewhere. And all this without a firm diagnosis, and with the curious description of semi-vegetative state, which appears to indicate brain activity is still taking place.

Why is it the court’s business if the parents seek treatment elsewhere, especially from qualified medical facilities like Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital? What does the UK lose if Alfie Evans gets on a plane? Nothing, except the power of life and death over its subjects and the potential for embarrassment if they are proven wrong. That’s already happened, as Alfie unexpectedly survived the withdrawal of the ventilator.

This is an evil decision. It should shame everyone connected to the system which allows such a decision to stand.

https://hotair.com/archives/2018/04/...tm_campaign=nl

This is what the Democrat lauded Universal Healthcare would bring here to the United States!

UK would rather give free healthcare to muslim migrants.

Originally Posted by MW

This is what the Democrat lauded Universal Healthcare would bring here to the United States!

It already has done that under Obamacare.

Originally Posted by Judy

It already has done that under Obamacare.

How so?