If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2017
In the U.K., in the end, the government gets the final word on the fate of the patient, not the parents, not the guardians, not the patient. When the government pays with money from the collective, that is understandable. However, in the case of the 10 month old Charlie, the parents wanted to use their own money to try and save their baby’s life. The government still had the final say.
This past week, the head of the Vatican’s bioethics panel came out on the side of the almighty State on the issue. The Pope reversed that position today.
The previous decision supporting the State came from the number three man at the Vatican, Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia. He came down on the side of euthanasia in this case.
On Sunday, Pope Francis called for the parents of 10 month old Charlie Gard to be allowed to do everything possible to treat their son
In a statement, the Vatican press office said Francis “is following with affection and sadness the case of little Charlie Gard and expresses his closeness to his parents. For this he prays that their wish to accompany and treat their child until the end is not neglected.”
On June 30, the head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life issued a condescending statement after complimenting the parents and the doctors:
The proper question to be raised in this and in any other unfortunately similar case is this: what are the best interests of the patient? We must do what advances the health of the patient, but we must also accept the limits of medicine and, as stated in paragraph 65 of the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, avoid aggressive medical procedures that are disproportionate to any expected results or excessively burdensome to the patient or the family.
-
The Importance of Prayer: How a Christian Gold Company Stands Out by Defending Americans’ Retirement
Likewise, the wishes of parents must be heard and respected, but they too must be helped to understand the unique difficulty of their situation and not be left to face their painful decisions alone. If the relationship between doctor and patient (or parents as in Charlie’s case) is interfered with, everything becomes more difficult and legal action becomes a last resort, with the accompanying risk of ideological or political manipulation, which is always to be avoided, or of media sensationalism, which can be sadly superficial.
The Pope’s number three man sounded as if he was making the case for euthanasia while rejecting euthanasia. He said there are limits to what medicine can do. We can all agree on that.
The Pope has now offered a hospital for Charlie. The parents want Charlie to die at home or in a more comfortable environment, but the State won’t let it happen. Going to the Vatican hospital would provide a much more comfortable environment.
From Aletia:
The president of Rome’s Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù Hospital, Mariella Enoc, said Monday she has asked her health director to ask London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital if terminally ill 11-month-old British boy Charlie Gard can be moved there. “We know that it is a desperate case and that there are no effective therapies,” Enoc said, adding “we are close to the parents in prayer and, if this is their desire, willing to take their child, for the time he has left to live”. Enoc said Pope Francis’s words on the case summed up her hospital’s mission: “Defending human life, above all when it is wounded by illness, is a commitment of love that God entrusts to all men”.
It’s too late
At this point, it’s too late for Charlie and he will be taken off life support shortly. His parents had been told by the Orwellian EU court that the decision was final and Charlie must be allowed to “die with dignity”.
Regardless of whether or not they’re right, the concept on which they are established is Orwellian.
Charlie has a rare genetic condition and brain damage. He can no longer breathe on his own. He will be taken off the respirator this week. Nothing more can be done, but people do need to think about what socialized medicine means to each one of us. It is what the Democrats want.
The doctors and the courts made a decision against the parents’ wishes but when the parents raised money to get Charlie a last-ditch treatment of oral medication in the United States, the authorities still said no.
The Vatican had no involvement in the case but interjected themselves into the case.
The State’s decision is the popular one
Recently, we posted an article calling the Vatican’s and the State’s stand in this case a disgrace. Charlie’s situation is not the best example because he is severely brain damaged and his illness is very advanced at this point. However, we came down on the side of parents having the freedom of choice in trying to save a life.
We had a comment from a man claiming to be a UK doctor who made a legitimate case for pulling the plug but he was coming from the point of view of the State and socialized medicine. He also claimed facts not in evidence and he was nasty. We are pretty sure that man will blog on the President’s site today.
The President will get blasted for his kindness, but it’s a beautiful gesture on the part of the President.
