Parents of Charlie Gard Release Heartbreaking Statement On Life-ending Decision

As was reported earlier Monday, Charlie Gard’s parents have decided to end the legal battle to keep him alive and attempt treatment outside the United Kingdom.

Chris Gard, with Charlie’s mother Connie Yates standing next to him, made a tearful statement to the press on how and why they’ve come to the decision at this time.

Emotional scene as Charlie Gard’s parents issue statement after decision to no longer pursue treatment. https://t.co/JwBmPZ2u8R pic.twitter.com/lZrJq9ONkL

— ABC News (@ABC) July 24, 2017

The statement reads as follows and is striking in what it reveals about Charlie’s case:

Heartbreaking statement from Chris Gard, father of #CharlieGard pic.twitter.com/LWJDFpFuy1

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 24, 2017

We now know that the hospital withholding treatment as the protracted legal battle over whether Charlie’s death sentence would hold created a scenario in which the boys condition was allowed to deteriorate to the point that the long shot medical treatment was even less likely to be effective.

The doctors were still willing to go ahead with treatment, even after new scans and tests revealed that the treatment could not undo the damage already done by the hospital and the court’s unwillingness to let Charlie Gard’s parents take him elsewhere when they were no longer willing to provide treatment.

Whether Charlie Gard would’ve survived through experimental treatment in the United States, we’ll never know. But that’s not the point. This serves as the best reminder of what can happen when the government is in charge of health care. When courts decide whether or not you have the right over yourself and your children to try to live  and the government has been given the power to stop you and say, “No, you’ll stay here and die because we say so.”

This is a tragic day for Charlie and his parents. It’s also a sorry indicator of where we are on the road of individual liberty and the rights we have to our own lives today.

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