Alfie Evans, Sick British Toddler At The Center Of A Fierce Legal Battle, Has Died

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Alfie Evans, a terminally ill toddler whose medical case set off a high-profile legal battle and international debates about health care and parental rights, died early Saturday morning, his parents said on social media.

Pope Francis had been publicly praying and advocating for the 23-month-old boy, and the Italian government offered citizenship to the child and created a plan to take him to a Vatican hospital. But Alfie’s doctors, who took him off life support against his parents’ wishes, said he couldn’t be healed and shouldn’t make the trip. A judge earlier this week sided with his doctors, who said he suffered from a rare and incurable degenerative neurological condition. The court also ruled that the parents could not seek treatment for him elsewhere because further treatment would be against the child’s best interests.

“Our baby boy grew his wings tonight at 2:30 a.m. We are heart broken,” his mother, Kate James, posted on Facebook. His father, Thomas Evans, posted: “My gladiator lay down his shield and gained his wings at 02:30 absolutely heartbroken I LOVE YOU MY GUY.”

Alfie, who was born in May 2016, was first admitted that year to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, England, after suffering seizures and had been a patient ever since in what the hospital considered a “semi-vegetative state.” Earlier this month, Thomas Evans met with Pope Francis in Rome and asked the pontiff to see his son in Liverpool.

In a 2018 ruling, one judge wrote that the Evans family’s Catholic faith should be as a factor in determining the child’s best interests, quoting Pope Francis distinguishing euthanasia from the discontinuance of overzealous care, which the pope has said “can be legitimate,” the Wall Street Journal reported. Catholic bishops in Britain distanced themselves from the Vatican hospital’s offer of treatment and praised the Liverpool hospital, stating that “public criticism of their work is unfounded,” the Journal reported.

British law states that parents “cannot demand a particular treatment to be continued where the burdens of the treatment clearly outweigh the benefits for the child,” Agence France-Presse reported. If an agreement cannot be reached between the parents and doctors, “a court should be asked to make a declaration about whether the provision of life-sustaining treatment would benefit the child.” In Alfie’s cases, judges sided with doctors each time.

The pope’s tweets about the boy drew significant attention, prompting comparisons to Charlie Gard, a British baby who died last year despite his parents’ fight — with the expressed support of Pope Francis and President Donald Trump — to keep him on life support. Charlie’s parents ultimately gave up their fight to take the baby to the U.S. for experimental therapy to prolong his life, saying there wasn’t a realistic chance of saving him. Trump has not mentioned Alfie’s case.

Francis has spoken repeatedly about Alfie. “Let us pray that every sick person might always be respected in their dignity and cared for in a manner adapted to their condition, with the concordant input of their families and loved ones, of the doctors and of other health-care workers, with great respect for life,” he said during his Sunday remarks on April 15, after mentioning “little Alfie Evans.”

On April 23, he tweeted, “Moved by the prayers and immense solidarity shown little Alfie Evans, I renew my appeal that the suffering of his parents may be heard and that their desire to seek new forms of treatment may be granted.”

He also brought up Alfie’s case during a Wednesday general audience. “The only author of life, from its beginning to its natural end, is God,” he said. “It is our duty to do all that is possible to safeguard life.”

Alfie’s case, represented by the U.K-based Christian Legal Centre, has become a subject of fierce concern for many Christian activists in Britain and drew the attention of conservative media and activists in the U.S. British protesters clashed with police as they tried to force their way into the hospital, and local police issued a warning after staff were allegedly harassed, saying social media posts were being monitored.

The hospital where Alfie was treated said his scans showed “catastrophic degradation of his brain tissue” and that further treatment was not only “futile” but also “unkind and inhumane,” according to the BBC. His parents waged a four-month-long battle in the British court system that went to the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.

The hospital said in a statement that it consulted with outside doctors, including ones in Rome, who concluded that the child’s condition was irreversible and untreatable. After his death on Saturday, the hospital released a statement offering its “heartfelt sympathy and condolences” to the family.

During the legal dispute, the couple had criticized the hospital fiercely, and Thomas Evans described his son as a “prisoner.” On Thursday, however, he thanked the family’s supporters but asked them to go home so the parents could build a relationship with the hospital to provide the toddler “with the dignity and comfort he needs.” He thanked the hospital staff “at every level for their dignity and professionalism during what must be an incredibly difficult time for them too.”

(c) 2018, The Washington Post · Sarah Pulliam Bailey  

{Matzav.com}


16 COMMENTS

  1. Bernie Sanders and his group want us to have this system of medicine and government. Think about it when you get sick the government will determine what your plan will be for health not the individual, not the parents, no one but the government. This is also why when most Canadians who are diagnosed with cancer or need special surgery come to the United States for treatment, because who can wait 6months to see someone who may help you or not. The VA hospitals have to change their system too, why do Veterans have to wait for health treatment like the socialists they did their bit they should be treated immediately. Think about it next time you go to your doctor and he tells you he is too busy and wait or you have the wrong insurance. ??????

    • Excellent observation!! With what has now occurred with this case of Alfie Evans, along with what occurred with the case of Charlie Guard, we must realize the outright danger that ALL of us are in!!

      Imagine the following scenario: One of our children, or, one of our parents, or one of our grandparents, or one of our great-grandparents, or one of our other relatives — or, one of ourselves — is very sick with a big problem. So we take him or her to the ER & the hospital. A bit later, the doctor comes out and explains that, very sadly, our child or our parent or our grandparent or our great-grandparent or our (other) relative or ourself has a severely deadly disease for which there is no cure. Therefore, it is in the “best interest” of everyone — especially in the “best interest” of our child or our parent or our grandparent or our great-grandparent or our (other) relative or ourself — for him or her to “simply” be “allowed” to die!! All life support will be terminated and no further feeding or treatment will be administered.

      So we say to the doctor that upon such a gravely serious situation, we want a second opinion!! The doctor though — getting very annoyed — bluntly retorts: “No!! There is no ‘second opinion’!! WE are the ‘second opinion’!!”

      So we find and contact other top specialists who tell us that there CERTAINLY ARE things that can be done that (Im Yirtza Hashem) can be very helpful. So we return to the hospital with the request to bring our patient to those specialists. Again though, the hospital coldly retorts: “No!! There is no ‘second opinion’!! WE are the ‘second opinion’!!”

      (If, I repeat, IF, we have the $$$$ for it) we hire a lawyer who attempts to plead our case, but the court, and then the appellate court, and then the appellate of the appellate court, and all the way up to the top, declares: “There is no indication of the hospital in error.” So, over and over and over, (baked up by the courts) the hospital retorts: “No!! There is no ‘second opinion’!! WE are the ‘second opinion’!!” “WE make the decision he is going to die — he is going to die!!” (Or, “WE make the decision she is going to die — she is going to die!!”)

      RACHMANA LITZLAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  2. The Torah hakedosha is Aitz chaim hee lamachazikim boh. The perverted thinking of goyim and secular is it’s ok to murder sick babies, unborn babies, yet go in an uproar if a murderer is granted a death sentence or a terrorist waterboarded. Ubchukosayhem lo sailaichu.

    • The evil wicked doctors of Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, evil wicked administration of Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, the evil wicked Judge Anthony Hayden (who, incidentally, is also a big TOEIVA activist), and the evil wicked Appellate Judge McFarland, are obviously all outright murderers who want to establish what they did as the standard norm — YIMACH SHEMAM V’ZICHRAM!!!!!!!!!!

  3. Misleading article didn’t mention that the hospital witheld food from the child! It wasn’t there lack of treatment that killed him. The hospital starved him to death by withholding food, as instructed by the evil judge.

    • The evil judge throughout the case was Judge Anthony Hayden; he is also huge TOEIVA activist — YIMACH SHEMO V’ZICHRO!!!!!!!!!!

    • The article did mention in passing, the ” . . . doctors, who took him off life support against his parents’ wishes . . . ” Taking “him off life support” here means that they CUT OFF HIS VENTILATOR BREATHING MACHINE!!

      Now, they did not do this when he was in any kind of state that they would have called “brain dead” or “half brain dead” or even “a quarter brain dead”; they did not do this he was in any kind of a coma or when he was in any way catatonic or even when he was asleep! Rather, (as the short video at
      https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/new-video-shows-a-lively-and-alert-alfie-evans-on-the-day-he-was-scheduled shows) they executed this virtual “sentence of death” on him when he was fully “responsive, alert, blinking, and looking around the room”!!

      Contrary to what the doctors had predicted, he did NOT die right away; instead, he continued breathing on his own — and yes, living — for over four more days!! By the fifth day though, he did start turning blueish color. At first, predictably, the hospital refused to give him oxygen but later relented and did give him some. Obviously though, it was no where near what was needed, and Alfie James Evans died, Hashem Yinakem Damo!!

    • WHAT IS THE QUESTION??????? Of course, it is well known what the Halacha says: that when any person is sick, we are obligated to do whatever we possibly can do that could possibly save him or her from dying and also whatever we possibly can do that could possibly make him or her well. This obviously includes that where one doctor claims that there is no cure, we must not take his word for it; rather, we are obligated to search for other “second” or even “third” opinions. When — as what did occur in both the Charlie Guard case and in this Alfie Evans case — there are other doctors who say that there are other things that could be done that could possibly help, (we are not only “permitted”) we are MOST CERTAINLY OBLIGATED to try them!!

  4. This is not the first infant the UK doctors murdered. Last year they murdered another baby called Charlie Gard for some kind of rare disease.

    These 2 infants might very well have contracted the “rare disease” from vaccination which of course the doctors would not admit.

    • Excellent theory! If that is what really happened, that in itself would explain why in each case they were so fanatically adamant in not allowing the baby to be taken to any other hospital: they were afraid that other more sincere truthful doctors might discover that the (so-called) “terminal” “rare disease” was in reality a bad reaction to a vaccination or/and some other harmful drug that had been given.

  5. This death could of easily been avoided. This harkens back memories of what the germans ym”s did to the sick and infirm. You had to be perfect. No room or need for the disadvantaged. Way to go Britain. And all you dumb blokes are busy oohing and aahhying over what some stupid kid Prince William had. You are murderers.

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