The president of Rome's
Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù Hospital, Mariella Enoc, said Monday
she has asked her health director to ask London's Great Ormond
Street Hospital if terminally ill 11-month-old British boy
Charlie Gard can be moved there.
"We know that it is a desperate case and that there are no
effective therapies," Enoc said, adding "we are close to the
parents in prayer and, if this is their desire, willing to take
their child, for the time he has left to live".
Enoc said Pope Francis's words on the case summed up her
hospital's mission: "Defending human life, above all when it is
wounded by illness, is a commitment of love that God entrusts to
all men".
US President Donald Trump also on Monday offered help for
Gharlie, tweeting: "If we can help little #CharlieGard, like our
friends in the UK and the pope, we would be happy to do so".
A White House spokesman said Trump had not personally spoken
to Charlie's parents but an administration staffer had done so
through British authorities.
"The president just wants to help," the spokesman said.
On Friday Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, president of the
Pontifical Academy for Life, called for respect of the wishes of
the parents of Charlie, who do not want their child to be taken
off life support.
The parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, wanted their son to
undergo experimental treatment in the US and have strenuously
opposed his doctors' decision to remove him from life support.
The European Court of Human Rights has rejected an appeal
filed by the parents to enable Charlie, who suffers from a rare
genetic condition and has brain damage from which he will not
recover, to undergo treatment in the US.
Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital were scheduled to
take him off life support on Friday but then extended their
deadline.
Before the European court, judges in the UK had ruled that it
was lawful for the hospital to withdraw life-sustaining
treatment because the child would suffer harm if his present
suffering was prolonged without any realistic prospect of
improvement and that the experimental therapy could not provide
real benefits.
Politicians across the political spectrum in Italy condemned
the decision.
Anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Beppe Grillo,
a vocal critic of the EU, slammed the European court's ruling
saying it was "incredible" as it meant that the "entire EU" has
nothing to say "on such an atrociously fundamental issue".
Anti-migrant and anti-euro Northern League leader Matteo
Salvini said the decision amounted to a "homicide" and strongly
criticized doctors for reportedly refusing the parents' request
to take their child home to die after their last appeal against
their decision was denied.
Centre-right Forza Italia Senator Lucio Malan called on
Italian President Sergio Mattarella to "intervene with Queen
Elizabeth" in order for the child not to be taken off life
support, which he said was an "execution".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
