Charlie Gard, the terminally-ill infant at the center of a court battle that grabbed international interest, will be transferred from a hospital to a hospice — probably to die the same day — unless an agreement for alternative arrangements is made by noon on Thursday, Britain’s High Court ordered Wednesday.
Judge Nicholas Francis issued the order after the boy’s parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates gave up their fight for him to die at home, saying “this has been a very very difficult decision to reach.”
Charlie suffers from an extremely rare degenerative condition called mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, which has caused brain damage and left him unable to move his limbs.
The pair had hoped to keep their 11-month-old son alive for a matter of days, but have not been able to find a medical team that would be able to supervise the intensive care he requires.
London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, which is caring for Charlie and has been seeking court permission to let him die since February, objected that a doctor proposed by the family on Wednesday lacked the right qualifications. He was a general practitioner with no intensive care experience and was not named, by court order.