Alfie Evans’ Parents Slam Court: “Our Son is Two and He’s Been Sentenced to the Death Penalty”

International   |   Dave Andrusko   |   Mar 16, 2018   |   9:28AM   |   London, England

Reports from local newspapers in Liverpool, England, say the nation’s Supreme Court has received a written application from the parents of gravely ill Alfie Evans and will likely decide whether to hear their appeal of a decision authorizing the withdrawal of their son’s ventilator the week starting March 19.

Writing for the Liverpool Echo, reporters Alan Weston and Brian Farmer explained that Kate James, 20, and Tom Evans, 21, must first clear an “initial legal hurdle”: to “persuade Supreme Court justices that they have a case worth arguing.”

The spokeswoman said justices might make that decision after considering written arguments or may stage a hearing where the merits of the couple’s case could be debated.

Evans and James have lost two court battles to win permission to move their 22-month-old son from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool to Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome in hopes doctors could determine what is the cause of his mysterious degenerative brain disease and provide additional medical interventions.

On March 6, Lord Justices McFarlane and McCombe and Lady Justice King of the nation’s second highest court concurred with the ruling of Mr. Justice Hayden who on February 20 agreed with specialists at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital who said life-support treatment should stop. “I am satisfied that continued ventilatory support is no longer in Alfie’s interests,” the judge held.

The day the three judge Court of Appeal rendered their decision, the Liverpool Echo reported that

Lady Justice King said an MRI scan in November 2017 showed that 70% of the matter in Alfie’s brain had been destroyed.

She said an independent witness told a previous hearing that Alfie’s brain was “entirely beyond recovery” with no capacity to regenerate itself

The parents vigorously dispute the diagnosis, and showed startling video of a much more responsive little boy than testimony given by the hospital suggested.

On Wednesday, The Sun, a British newspaper, offered an excellent summary of the background to Alfie Evan’s case.

The 22-month-old was born perfectly healthy but in his first seven months missed numerous developmental milestones, his family said.

He started making “jerking, seizure-like movements” and was taken to the doctors, but his parents were told he was “lazy and a late developer”, the family claim.

But he caught a chest infection that caused seizures and was placed on life support at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool in December 2016. …

After he was admitted to Alder Hey, his parents were told he wasn’t going to make it–but he fought back to beat the infection and started breathing on his own.

But he caught another chest infection and had to go back on a ventilator when he began having more chronic seizures.

Mr. Evans has vowed never to give up. Evans, who represented himself during the seven-day hearing at Liverpool civil and family court, said

“I feel so blessed to have Alfie here. It was meant to be to have Alfie as my son.

“Just the name Alfie Evans is a name that is going to be remembered around the world.

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“One day we hope and believe we can take him to a swimming pool, he might not be able to swim but he will have the ability to experience the water.

“We’re not in denial. We see that our child has a life.

“Alfie is not just a child, he is our child. He is a child of God.”

He told reporters after Mr. Justice Hayden handed down his verdict

“Can you believe my son is being sentenced to a death sentence with two days to go?

…I’m not crying because I know how wrong they are and I know how strong my boy is. My boy is strong, my boy is comfortable. This isn’t over, this is just the start. I am going to take this NHS down. I’m not giving up. My son ain’t giving up. …

“My son is two years of age and he’s been sentenced to the death penalty. How wrong is that?”

LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.