Charlie Gard- State decides or parents?

Toko Black

No, but 'happy' is not really an apt or appropriate measure for any outcome from this case.
If you mean I am okay with the way things went:

I am satisfied with how the UK doctors, the hospital and the courts handled the case.
I am not fully okay with how the parents acted, but I sympathise with them and don't really feel it's just or fair to hold them responsible for their desperation and emotional states.
i.e. I don't agree with the parents decisions and actions, but I accept that it would be callous to hold them to account in any way for what are understandable if not rational decisions because of the emotional stress, pressure and grief they have been under.

rustybin

Completely agree. The family have hardly covered themselves in glory in all this. It's all been about them and not Charlie. This is why we need to state to step in and do the right thing for the party who can't act for himself.

Unlucky Alf

Let's try it from a different angle.

Have you heard of Jahi McMath? Jahi McMath case - Wikipedia). In a nutshell, she ended up brain dead after an operation went wrong. The hospital she was in ended up applying to have her removed from life support, but the parents disagreed. After going to court, the matter was resolved with the hospital discharging her into the parents' care. That was back at the start of 2014. Over 3 years later, she's still brain dead and on life support, but the parents are still claiming she's responding to them (Stories from the trauma bay: Jahi McMath update).

I'm sure you can see the similarities to the Charlie Gard case here. Still think the McMath parents are right or the Gard parents would be right to continue treatment/life support?

mortal

Most sensible thing I've heard about this case

Cliff

What is interesting from various posters and views in the press, is that some just don't see that anything went wrong. That's fine as a point of view, I suppose, but looking at the controversy it has generated, it is obvious something was not right.

Overall, GOSH did not come out of this well. Neither did their lawyers who were accused of being very confrontational. The state, by taking over the parents rights, the Pope, Toko's ult Right, religious groups, the doctor from the States and others.

What I will say is the only people that acted with dignity were the parents. Of course they had hope, but any parent would. They condemned the threats to GOSH on social media. They even praised the care that Charlie had received initially from GOSH. It's a pity it ended so bitterly.

krish

Coupled with a rather petty dig at GOSH for apparently not condemning the threats they were supposedly receiving (so???) - possibly scripted by their family spokesman, kipper Alasdair Seton-Marsden, who triggered the threats to GOSH staff with his Fox News appearance (also getting Nigel in on the action) and bringing US pro-lifers on board.

Unlucky Alf

You haven't answered my question.

As for dignity, I'd say the parents have been the least dignified people in the whole thing.

IronGiant

That is unnecessarily harsh IMHO . The parents are in many ways as much a victim as their son from the moment they launched their social media campaign.
There was never any hope for Charlie, they were completely mislead, he should have been allowed to die quietly in their arms once his condition was established.  Which is what I assume GOSH have been trying their best to arrange.

krish

The family were sadly taken advantage of by others with political and financial motivations.

Axl

From Chris Gard;

"I would just like to say that Alasdair Seaton-Marsden is NOT our spokesperson.

Despite repeated requests, he has continually expressed views and put out statements on our behalf (including one just a few minutes ago) which we have NOT consented to and do not agree with. He is not helping us and he is certainly not helping Charlie. All he has done is tarnish the reputation of two parents who have been trying to save their son and we are getting a stream of abusive messages because of it.

With regards to parents being harassed in the hospital, this was Alasdair getting other distressed parents to try and sign a petition which we were unaware of and would not of agreed with had we been aware. We have tried very hard not to involve other parents in our fight for Charlie as we know what a devastating place this can be for upset and anxious parents and they have enough on their plate without hearing about our problems too.

With all the stress we are under, the last thing we need is this man putting out quotes on our behalf which we do not and have not expressed.

We have always acted in Charlie's best interests and we have never slated gosh publicly, in fact we have been grateful to the staff for their care despite some conflicting issues.

All the quotes you read in the media criticising gosh, have come from him, not us.

I just want to make that clear."