U.K. Judge Rules Critically Ill Infant Can’t Travel to Italy for Treatment, Must Die in Britain

I previously noted on the Corner the awful case of Indi Gregory, an eight-month-old baby being treated for the same rare genetic disorder that Charlie Gard had. Doctors say the disorder will certainly end her life in a matter of months and that prolonged treatment will only worsen her suffering.

Indi’s parents wish to leave no stone unturned. But as with the case of Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans, the hospital in which the baby is receiving care is succeeding in its attempts to block their efforts.

Doctors argued that while treatment would prolong Indi’s life it would “not improve its quality and will cause her further pain and unnecessary suffering.” They argued that “a ceiling of care is appropriate and that further forms of aggressive and invasive treatment are not in Indi’s best interests, whilst recognizing that this would likely result in the shortening of her life.”

Justice Peel, a High Court judge, previously ruled in the doctors’ favor, concluding that the physicians managing Indi’s care at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham could lawfully limit treatment. Later, an Italian hospital offered to treat Indi. But on Thursday, Justice Peel refused to allow Gregory’s parents to move her to a hospital in Rome, citing the child’s best interests.

Doctors are entitled to act according to their best medical judgment. And so the judge’s first decision — that Indi’s doctors could shift their treatment plan to palliative care — was, I think, both fair and consistent with pro-life principles. Being pro-life means supporting life from conception until natural death. It does not mean keeping the dying on life support, prolonging life through extraordinary means, indefinitely.

But what about the parents’ rights? What is unfathomable and abhorrent to me is the effort to prevent Indi’s parents from taking their daughter elsewhere. The decision to leave no stone unturned — to go in search of a miracle — is not the doctors’ decision to make.

Indi’s parents said they are “horrified” by the judge’s decision and vow to appeal. I hope they are successful. Going forward, the U.K. needs urgent legal reform to stop this appalling assault on parental rights from continuing to happen.