Charlie Gard

In his statement I believe Charlie's father said they had accepted he wouldn't make his first birthday next week, so I'm confused why they want extra time, (another week?). Sadly the inevitable has to happen, I just wish it could be done without all the bitterness and arguing.

So the parents want longer with their child and I can understand that but it really isn't about the parents - it is about a little child.

It is the sad reality that many sick babies die everyday. In many places a simple vaccine would save them, or easier access to proven medicines could ease pain and suffering or even cure. In some places the ruling government prevent children accessing treatment. Where are the pro-life campaigners then??
This one little boy, with an incurable condition, has dominated the press / media and got the attention of Trump/ Pope. I am sad that the media is only interested in the controversial nature of this case. His understandably distraught parents have focused their grief on the hopeless fight for treatment and I can understand that... but many other parents, who love/loved their incurable babies/children just as much have taken a different path. Other babies /children will have sadly died , despite the best care at GOSH, during the time this case has been in the headlines and their parents will be grieving too.

That is a very thoughtful, and thought provoking, post Penstemmom.

How very sad that Lorenzos parents couldn't let him go. That was no life he had. Same with Charlie. Hope other parents don't follow suit. The medical team have done everything within their power to help Charie as they have, the devotion they show all their patients is commendable.

A friend said to me today that they, Charlie's parents " were milking it for all it was worth". I was quite shocked by that as I believe his parents are doing what they think best. However it was interesting to hear such a blunt point of view. Shared I am sure by others.

Penstemmon How many babies have been born into a life of hopelessness, disability etc because of the teachings of the Catholic Church?

Decisions by parents is for them , their children and no one else. It's over now, the little one will be dead soon.

Jalima. many members of the Catholic church do positive work to support the poor, sick and disabled.

I saw a whole bunch of 'pro-lifers' in town the other day waving banners. Whilst I accept their right to hold their opinions they may have been better placed doing something practical to raise funds to help impoverished families, offering help at the local children's hospice or volunteering to provide respite care for families with a severely disabled family member.

Yes, I realise that many do, but they could alleviate much of world poverty, over-population etc in one speech.

Anniebach on some occasions parents may not be best placed to make the right decisions for their children. And we know some parents are just not good parents. In this case I think these parents wanted, desperately, what they thought was best. I feel that the doctors equally had the child's best interests at heart. They had far less emotional involvement as well as the medical expertise to make the assessment.

I understand that, in cases of serious illness, doctors tend not to treat family members because it makes it difficult to be objective. For similar reasons, families need to take the advice of a professional whose prognosis is not clouded by personal emotions.

The news just now said that the plan proposed is for him to be transferred to a hospice and for his feeding tube to be removed within hours, which would inevitably lead to his death fairly speedily. I hope that he will not be distressed by the move, or that they can make him comfortable for this. I cannot see what is to be gained by this move, except to meet the wishes of his parents for him to be out of hospital.

Lorenzo's sister Cristina is a journalist and sometimes on Question Time etc.

I thought it was her.

But the latest news I ve just heard ten minutes ago said the parents are insisting on their own specialist group of carers go with him to the hospice and a decision on that now has to be made I m really not understanding all these demands and I find it very difficult to understand how one little baby can take precidence over all the other sick and dying babies and children Whilst I truely feel for the parents I think it is so far from reality now that is wrong Why can't they do what most sad parent do and sit with their baby and hold him while he breaths his last in the hospital he is in and known for 11 months why move him when the only medical intervention will be removing the machines........ It's become a huge control issue now and not nice

They want him kept alive for "an indefinite period" . That is why they want their own team.
They are unable to let him go. Poor them and poor Charlie.

I think the hospices aren't allowed to care for intensively ventilated children and that is why he would die within hours if transferred. I assume the parents can get round that issue by taking their own medical team with them to the hospice, thereby giving them the extra days they want.
Once again, GOSH is not obstructing this, but I guess they are having to scour the land for a paediatric specialist in this field and sort everything out in minute detail.

And finda hospice with enough space and willing to take Charlie and his equipment etc.

This poor little chap - his parents need to let him go. The longer this goes on the more traumatic the end and its subsequent grief are likely to be. The parents seem to have been seduced by the sense of power that being in court and the media following have created; if only they could have some peace and privacy to let this little boy go now.

They look so young themselves - how on earth can they handle this with some sense of balance when emotions are running so high? What they need is a counsellor to walk beside them in this process.

Lillie I thought the whole point of taking him to the hospice was to take the machines off and let him go in his little way
I think this is turning into a madness which is not nice to witness

Yes, BB, but no one in their right mind would want to take the machines off within a few hours of walking through the doors of a strange place. It will take ages to settle Charlie in, then the parents and family members will want goodbye time, hence the need for several shifts of non hospice personnel. The GOSH nurses have offered to do 12 hour shifts, so they must be anticipating this could last for days.

I agree with your post BlueBell, GOSH is full of sick babies and children. The parents have accepted that their poor little boy doesn't have any brain activity and his life support must be switched off, I'm not sure what difference it will make where they spend their last hours with him. The logistics of their demands are quite unreasonable it's not great turning the whole unhappy saga into a public spectacle for anyone, not for the other parents who have to visit their sick children at the hospital, or the medical staff. I hope the parents can move on with their lives after this and hopefully have another child who will be healthy and bring them joy. I've come late to this thread and confess haven't read through the whole of it, but those who people who comprise of "Charlie's Army" What good are they doing No doubt that's been discussed already.

It is all so dreadfully sad.

I don't think we will have heard the last of this though, even after poor Charlie is gone - I have a feeling that his parents will be giving a lot of newspaper and tv interviews soon - not sure why, but they seem that way.

Stop keeping on , your child isn't the only sick child in the country, you are causing problems for the hospital, let him die and replace him with a healthier specimen

That mother needs to spend a few hours on here