Posted on 04/30/2018 4:25:31 PM PDT by Morgana
FULL TITLE: British Prime Minister Defends Hospital That Ended Alfie Evans Life, Says Clinicians Should Decide Not Parents
Now that little Alfie Evans has died, apologists are coming out of the woodwork defending the hospital, the doctors, and the courts, that yanked his life support over his parents objections.
As Alfies family mourns his death on Saturday, and as millions of supporters of his family across the globe share their condolences, some people are defending Alder Hey Childrens Hospital. That is the hospital where doctors decided Alfie was too far gone and revoked his life support without his parents permission. The hospital engaged in a months-long legal battle with his parents who desperately wanted Alfie to have appropriate medical care and treatment and potentially experimental treatment for his supposed neurological condition.
In new comments today, British prime minister Theresa May defended the hospital. She argued that medical experts ought to be the ones to make decisions in such cases as opposed to parents and family.
As British media reported:
But Mrs May says she believes medical experts should be the ones to make decisions in such cases.
Mrs May was asked if she would support an Alfies Law, proposed by North West MEP Steven Woolfe , which would give parents of terminally-ill children more say in end-of-life hospital care.
Speaking on a visit to Brooklands Primary School in Sale, Greater Manchester, Mrs May said: This is a tragic case. I think all of us feel enormously for the parents of Alfie.
This is a great tragedy to have to go through, the death of a child, and particularly to see it happen in this way.
Its important that decisions about medical support that are given to children and to others are made by clinicians, by those who are expert in that matter, but I think at the moment we all feel for Alfies family and our condolences are with them.
But Terri Schiavos brother Bobby Schindler disagrees and told LifeNews that courts should never have prevented Afies parents from caring for their son, who ultimately died on Saturday less than a week after doctors yanked his life support without their consent.
The head of the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network told LifeNews: Like Tom and Kate Evans, I know how terrible it is to be powerless to care for a loved one, but I cannot imagine the unique tragedy of being prevented from caring for a child in the way that the United Kingdom and European Courts barred them from exercising what so many recognize as their basic parental rights to provide care.
We will honor Alfies memory, concluded Schindler, and we will do whatever we can to affirm the value of every life, regardless of condition and the right of every parent to care for their children in a life-affirming way.
Carol Tobias, the president of the National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews that people need to be very clear about what happened with Alfie. She says he was sentenced to death by courts and doctors. She says what happened to Alfie and his parents needs to never happen to get to any other child or patient.
The pro-life leader placed the blame for his death squarely on judges and hospital officials who claimed Alfie was too far gone to save.
Lets be clear: Alfie Evans was sentenced to death by Britains National Health System and the High Court. Their intransigent commitment to the countrys faulty single-payer health system led them to conclude it was better for Alfie to die than leave the country and receive potentially life-saving treatment elsewhere, Tobias said.
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Alfie Evans ended up dying very early Saturday morning after the childrens hospital that was supposed to provide him with appropriate medical care and treatment disconnected his life support without his parents permission. That action came after a long and extensive legal battle between Alfies parents and Alder Hey Childrens Hospital, with the British court system agreeing with doctors by saying that Alfie was supposedly too far gone for additional care and treatment or experimental medical treatment to possibly help his neurological condition.
Alfie supposedly suffered from a degenerative neurological condition and administrators at Alder Hey, which is a National Health System Foundation Trust, sought, and received, approval from the High Court to discontinue treatment in direct opposition to the wishes of Alfies parents. The High Courts decision was met with outcry around the world, and was condemned by world leaders including European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, Polish president Andrezej Duda, and Pope Francis.
Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome offered to treat Alfie and he was granted Italian citizenship to expedite his transport to Italy. However, the High Court prohibited Evans and James from removing their son from Alder Hey.
Alfies father Tom Evans spent the last 10 minutes of the 23-month-old little boys life desperately trying to revive him with mouth to mouth.
Meanwhile, Alfies mother Kate has posted a poem remembering Alfie that has already been shared thousands of times on Facebook.
In posts on Facebook, Alfies mother and father confirmed his passing.
Our baby boy grew his wings tonight at 2:30 am. We are heart broken. Thank you everyone for all your support, she wrote.
My gladiator lay down his shield and gained his wings at 02:30 absolutely heartbroken, the boys father Tom Evans wrote on Facebook.
Family friend Laura McKenzie said: Tom and Kate really appreciate everyone coming and showing their love.
The whole world showed how much Alfie was loved and well never, ever, ever forget him or his name. No one will.
After his death, family and supporters of Alfie Evans celebrated his life in pictures and hundreds of tearful supporters of Alfie Evans and his family gathered at a park near Alder Hey Childrens Hospital to release balloons to honor the little boy after his death. And Pope Francis expressed the kind of sentiments that people around the world are expressing. He talked about his sadness and he talked about Alfie being embraced by the Lord in heaven.
I am deeply moved by the death of little Alfie. Today I pray especially for his parents, as God the Father receives him in his tender embrace, the pope tweeted on Saturday.
The legal battle sparked anger nationwide in England but also internationally as people stood up for Alfies parents and strongly opposed courts and hospitals making life and death decisions for patients over their families objections.
There is concern that the hospital contributed to his death.
As LifeNews reported, after removing his life support without permission, officials at Alder Hey Childrens Hospital waited 28 hours before finally feeding the 23-month old boy, who was fighting a rare neurological condition. Alfies Father Tom Evans confirmed at the time that his son was finally being fed but he condemned hospital officials for waiting so long to finally get him the nutrition he needs.
They only started feeding him at one oclock yesterday. Its disgusting how hes being treated, Evans said. Not even an animal would be treated like this. Hes proving them wrong. Its time to give him some grace and dignity and let him go home or to Italy.
The other day, Alfies parents changed course and decided to end their battle.
Alfie Evans father Tom Evans called for supporters of Alfie and his family to stand down so they can begin building a bridge with Alder Hey Childrens Hospital and its staff. The statement from Alfies father was surprising given the animosity that had developed between the Evans family and the hospital. Hospital officials have spent months in court preventing Alfies family from taking him to a hospital in Italy or even taking him home. Hospital officials even went as far as misleading courts by saying that they never said Alfie would die quickly after his life support was removed even though they initially said Alfie would die within minutes after yanking his life support over his parents objections.
But perhaps seeing that there was little opportunity left to fight for Alfies rights and their right to take him abroad or take him home or sensing a need to appease the hospital to bring him home, Tom Evans struck a conciliatory tone.
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Later, the family of Alfie Evans blasted a false news report saying his parents are supposedly preparing for his death.
Alfies parents had hoped to take the little boy to the hospital in order to potentially get experiemental treatment that could help his rare degenerative neurological condition but courts repeatedly denied that. Justice Hayden ruled that Alfies family would not be able to fly him to Italy for treatment and appeared to say that this was the final decision related to his case. He said flying Alfie to Italy could harm his health because, as court testimony indicated, the flight could trigger possible continuous seizures due to stimulations of the flight. But Alfies parents are concerned Alfie will die if he doesnt get care and possible experimental treatment in Italy.
A British doctors group, The Medical Ethics Alliance, expressed its horror over the treatment of Alfie Evans that it called a medical tyranny.
And Italys Healthcare Chief has slammed the decisions by UK courts to treat Alfie the way that they had. The President of the Italian National Institute of Health lambasted the UK High Courts decision yesterday on Alfie Evans that resulted it the childrens hospital being allowed to remove life support over Alfies parents objections.
Pope Francis repeatedly spoken on Alfies behalf and urged that Alfies parents be allowed to bring him to Italy.
Members of Parliament are leading a new campaign for a law to prevent the tragic situation happening to Alfie Evans and his parents from happening to any other family. The new campaign calls on MPs to debate the matter in the House of Commons with potential plans for Alfies Law.
Alfie Evans is not the first little boy to be held hostage by the court system and the healthcare system. There have been many other cases where courts and doctors have made the life or death decisions for a patient over the objections of their family.
One of those cases involved a little boy named Charlie Gard. In essentially the exact same circumstance, the British courts decided that his parents did not have the right to make the decision whether his life support was disconnected and a hospital yanked his life support without their consent. Charlie ultimately died not long after that happened. Chris Gard and Connie Yates little boy passed away just before 1st birthday in July 2017.
Sadly, I’d say they did.
I believe I read that the cruel Brits are so heartless than many cheered little Alfie’s death. Why would an American want to visit there. They can keep their British Museum.
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Good Lrd. Why would I even want to visit a country where parents dont have rights over their sick infants medical choices? Not me.
Ghastly.
It is almost as if they have forgotten who they were, the envy of the world. Now they are quite comfortable killing their own children to make room for savage invaders.
These are certainly not the same people who produced Churchill, Nelson, Thatcher, Elizabeth I, etc.
Exactly my point. Why have your cities bombed, a lot of good people get killed, and ruin your economy when your country simply becomes what you were ostensibly fighting against two generations earlier.
A continuation of my thought about Hilton Hotels opening a resort in Cam Ranh Bay a few years ago. If Hilton can operate safely in Vietnam, its pretty hard to argue that the USA “lost” the war.
No, they’re not. And I said here many times that in my lifetime(I’m over 60) I will see England, as it once was, be no more.
Sad isn’t it?
Yes. So much for ‘’diversity’’. Diversity is where nations go to die.
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