Alfano urges UK to let Alfie to come

(ANSA) - Rome, April 18 - Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano on Monday urged his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, to allow a young boy suffering from an undiagnosed degenerative disease to be transferred to medical facilities in Rome.
    The family of the boy, Alfie Evans, is in a legal battle with Alder Hey, a children's hospital that says it is best to withdraw ventilation as his condition cannot be treated and has destroyed much of his brain.
    The boy's parents want to take him to Rome's Bambino Gesú children's hospital, which is owned by the Vatican.
    Alfano asked for the parents' request to be granted to take the boy to the hospital in the Italian capital, "medical facilities of a very high level that accept him in on the base of an agreement". He noted, however, that "Alfie is a British citizen and Italy respects the decisions made in the framework of British national jurisdiction" and that "the British national healthcare system and medical standards are among the highest in the world". The Rome hospital has reportedly given the same prognosis but would be willing to perform a tracheotomy.