Alfie Evans dies, priest kicked out of room, the world shocked over legal battle, ‘Alfie and his parents must know their place’
British toddler Alfie Evans died in hospital on Saturday as doctors withdrew life support, the child’s parents said, following a highly publicized legal battle and a campaign that drew support from Pope Francis, Christians and human rights activists all over the globe.
“Our baby grew his wings tonight at 2:30am. We are heartbroken. Thank you everyone for all your support,” Kate James and Thomas Evans said in a statement on Facebook.
The parents had fought to take their son, who had a degenerative mitochondrial medical condition, from a hospital in Liverpool in northwest England to a clinic in Rome, but was blocked by British courts.
Evans’ legal team said the wishes of Alfie’s parents had been ignored right up until the last.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “Alfie’s parents wanted him to go home to die in the end, but the hospital appeared to think they would have absconded with him. It was ludicrous and heartbreaking. Alfie died in hospital with police standing guard outside his door. That’s completely unsatisfactory.”
She added: “This is why we need an Alfie’s Law that gives much more weight to what parents want in these cases. Should responsible parents really be prevented from seeking the best medical care available for their children? The answer has to be no.
“The whole thing could have been avoided by simply allowing Alfie to be taken to a hospital of his parents’ choice that would have given him the care they were looking for with another team.”
Erick Erickson at The Daily Wire writes: “…the United Kingdom has decided Alfie really belongs to the state, the state can kill him. A doctor assured the courts that within five minutes of removing Alfie’s ventilation, the child would die. Seventy-two hours later, Alfie still fought for his life. Naturally, the courts stepped in and ordered him starved to death. To let Alfie survive would be to admit the British social health care system had failed. Alfie must die for the good of the bureaucratic conscience. Alfie and his parents must know their place.”
Nigal Farage, Brexit author, appeared on Laura Ingraham Thursday, sparing no words and denounced the British government for stripping the Evans family of their parental rights and instituting a “state-sponsored euthanasia.”
“Any parent in the world who’s got a child that’s sick would move heaven and earth if somebody else could offer them a different treatment,” Farage told Ingraham. “And yet what happens here is, our state-run medical system decides there is nothing else that can be done, and backed up by the state courts, they make a decision that those parents are not fit to move their child somewhere else.”
In a tweet the Pope had written last week: “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.”
Medical experts agreed that more treatment would be futile, but his parents had wanted him treated at the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu hospital, which had offered to care for him.
What is mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome?
Mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome (MDS) refers to a group of disorders that cause affected tissues to suffer from a significant drop in mitochondrial DNA.
The DNA is found in the mitochondria of cells, an organelle found in most cells in which respiration and energy production occur.
Alfie’s diagnosis is similiar to Charlie Gard’s case, where the sufferers do not get energy to their muscles, kidneys and brain.
MDS causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage.
MDS is almost always fatal in babies and young children, although some sufferers have made it into their teenage years.
There is currently no cure but some treatments have shown a reduction in symptoms.
Father Don Gabriele Brusco was removed from Alfie’s bedside
A report from Italian newspaper La Nuova Bussola suggests Father Don Gabriele Brusco was removed from Alfie’s bedside by Liverpool Archbishop Malcolm McMahon after hospital staff grew tired of the priest’s presence.
Father Brusco, while stationed at the hospital to tend to Alfie, was reportedly reminding medical staffers that God is aware of their choices during this trying time. “While at the hospital, the priest appealed to the consciences of the hospital staff, reminding them that God would judge them for their sins against Alfie’s life,” reported Life Site News.
“Apparently, the staff did not like this.”
