By Dave Andrusko
Following still another loss in the courts, the message from Tom Evans, father of the grievously ill Alfie Evans, posted on his Facebook page this morning summed up the situation in heartbreaking fashion:
Feel so sorry for my innocent little man doesn’t even no what’s going on
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Alls he knows is he is fighting and wants to continue to live his private life with his mum and dad
😞
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Having lost at all levels in the British courts, Mr. Evans and Alfie’s mother, Kate James, appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). As NRL News Today wrote last week, the parents were not challenging the Alder Hey Children’s hospital in Birmingham, England, but the United Kingdom on the grounds that the “UK court had infringed on their human rights as parents,” as to Josh Parry of the Liverpool Echo explained. Tom and Kate wanted the order to withdraw Alfie’s ventilator to be stayed.
But in a decision rendered by a committee of three judges and characterized as “final,” a spokesperson for the ECHR said
“The European Court of Human Rights has today declared the application Evans v. the United Kingdom inadmissible, finding that there was no appearance of a violation of the rights and freedoms set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.”
Moreover, according to David Raven of the Liverpool Echo
“The Court has also rejected a request for an interim measure made by the applicants under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court to stay the order of the domestic courts permitting the withdrawal of Alfie Evans’s treatment.”
Mr. Evans said the family had been “failed disgracefully by the system.” Writing on Facebook, he said
“We as parents are not giving up … Our son is about to be murdered, taking [sic] away from us, his innocent life is about to be taken.
“Please our Queen, Pope Francis, please [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel. Someone save our innocent not dying son. He looks into our eyes every day, he responds to us every day. Alfie James Evans we love you so so so much. We will do everything we can.”
The Guardian newspaper added
In a message directly to Alder Hey, Evans added: “Please AH let him go home to die on a [tracheotomy] that he can pay for out of his own funds!!! We beg now [Alder Hey] to work with us.”
In a statement, Alder Hey said it would work with Alfie’s parents to “agree the most appropriate palliative care plan” for the child.
Kate James, Tom Evans, and their son, Alfie
[From Tom Evans’ Facebook page]
The parents have asked for permission to move Alfie to a hospital in Rome for further evaluation and possible additional treatment.
The hospital balked at the request. They argue Alfie’s condition is terminal and that the Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome can do nothing more than Alder Hey already has.
On February 20, after a seven-day hearing, Mr. Justice Hayden concluded, “I am satisfied that continued ventilatory support is no longer in Alfie’s interests,” and that maintaining Alfie alive on a ventilator would compromise his “future dignity,” mirroring the conclusions reached by Alder Hey Childrens’ Hospital.
Evans and James appealed but on March 6, Lord Justices McFarlane and McCombe and Lady Justice King of the nation’s second highest court concurred with the ruling of Judge Hayden. Last week the nation’s Supreme Court turned down the parents’ request to appeal, leaving an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights as the only recourse open to them.