Parents vs. the NHS: The Boy Who Lived

I wrote earlier this week about Indi Gregory, a terminally ill baby who died last weekend in England after being taken off life support by a court order vetoing her parents’ wishes. Indi’s National Health Service doctors believed (reasonably, in my view) that removal from life support was in Indi’s “best interests.” But her parents disagreed, wishing to leave no stone unturned (and in my view, they ought to have been allowed to pursue treatment elsewhere). The U.K. High Court ruled in the hospital’s favor. Armed guards were assigned to escort Indi’s family from the hospital to the hospice, where she would take her last breath.

As I wrote in an earlier column, this was by no means an isolated incident. Many readers will remember the cases of Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans, and Alta Fixsler. But there is another case, from 2014, worth mentioning — one in which the court ultimately sided with the parents and the child survived.

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Madeleine Kearns

Madeleine Kearns is a former staff writer at National Review.

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I wrote earlier this week about Indi Gregory, a terminally ill baby who died last weekend in England after being taken off life support by a court order vetoing her parents’ wishes. Indi’s National Health Service doctors believed (reasonably, in my view) that removal from life support was in Indi’s “best interests.” But her parents disagreed, wishing to leave no stone unturned (and in my view, they ought to have been allowed to pursue treatment elsewhere). The U.K. High Court ruled in the hospital’s favor. Armed guards were assigned to escort Indi’s family from the hospital to the hospice, where she would take her last breath.

As I wrote in an earlier column, this was by no means an isolated incident. Many readers will remember the cases of Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans, and Alta Fixsler. But there is another case, from 2014, worth mentioning — one in which the court ultimately sided with the parents and the child survived.