Theresa May has said that the hospital treating Charlie Gard, the critically ill baby whose parents are seeking experimental treatment for him in the US, will “always consider any offers on new information” about his welfare.
The comment at prime minister’s questions came after the US president, Donald Trump, offered help to the 11-month-old’s parents, while Pope Francis expressed his support for the family.
However, Boris Johnson has expressed doubt that Charlie could be treated abroad, saying decisions on his treatment should be led by expert medical opinion, supported by the courts.
Charlie’s parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, have been engaged in a court battle with Great Ormond Street hospital in London, where their son is being treated.
They want Charlie, who has a form of mitochondrial disease, a genetic condition that causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage, to have treatment in the US.
But the hospital’s doctors said that, given Charlie’s condition, the therapy was unlikely to have a beneficial outcome.
The family’s local MP, Labour’s Seema Malhotra, used PMQs to say that while the chances of the US treatment helping Charlie were low, doctors could say within three months whether he was responding.
Talking about the possibility of Charlie being sent to the US, Malhotra asked May: “Would the prime minister do all she can to bring the appropriate people together to try and make this happen?”
Saying her thoughts were with the infant and his family, May said she could “fully understand and appreciate that any parent in these circumstances would want to do everything possible and explore every option for their seriously ill child”.
The prime minister added: “But I also know that no doctor ever wants to be placed in the terrible position where they have to take such heartbreaking decisions.
“The honourable lady referred to the fact that we have that court process here. I’m confident that Great Ormond Street hospital have and will always consider any offers on new information that has come forward, with consideration of the wellbeing of a desperately ill child.”
Separately, Johnson cast doubt on the idea Charlie could receive treatment in Italy in the wake of the Pope’s comments.
The foreign secretary spoke by phone to his Italian counterpart, Angelino Alfano, primarily to discuss policy issues, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.
During the discussion, Alfano raised the offer of treatment in Italy, the spokeswoman said. “The foreign secretary said this was a deeply tragic and complex case for all involved, and said it was right that decisions continued to be led by expert medical opinion, supported by the courts, in line with Charlie’s best interests,” the spokeswoman said.
At the end of June, the European court of human rights rejected an appeal by Charlie’s parents that he be allowed to undergo the experimental treatment in the US, following a similar ruling by the UK’s supreme court.
Great Ormond Street had said Charlie’s mechanical ventilator would be switched off after the European judgment, but the hospital has since given the boy’s parents more time to spend with him before this happens.
