Mother Shares Photo of Baby With Eyes Open, As She Waits To Find Out If His Life-Support Will Be Switched Off

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“A picture speaks a thousand words”  that’s the caption used when a Mother posted this image on Facebook.

The supreme court in Westminster last week rejected the family’s appeal and effectively decided that her baby should be allowed to die with dignity and his life support switched off. The ECHR in Strasbourg ordered her son Charlie’s life-saving treatment to continue, but that requirement is due to expire at midnight on Tuesday.

Courts are due to decide whether it will hear legal arguments from the family of a severely ill baby who want him to be sent to the US for treatment.

The parents believe their 10-month-old son, Charlie Gard, who suffers from a rare genetic condition and has brain damage, should undergo experimental medical therapy in the US in the hope of prolonging his life.

The court has been considering written submissions made by the family’s lawyers and the judges have not yet decided whether they will hear more detailed, oral evidence.

Specialists say the nucleoside bypass therapy proposed by a doctor in the US is experimental and would not help and they believe the life support treatment should end.

The European Court of Human Rights is currently considering the case.

Doctors say that Charlie cannot hear, move, cry or swallow and that his lungs only go up and down because he is on a machine that does it for him. They also say the US trial is experimental and will not improve his quality of life.

“As quoted from the judgement . . . ‘He is not consistently able to open his eyes enough to be able to see. Indeed, this leads to the difficulty that his brain is failing to learn to see’.”