Baby dies after UK court denies life-support line from Italy
**UPDATE** The BBC reported on April 28 that 23-month-old Alfie Evans died almost a weeek after his life support was withdrawn. His father, Tom Evans, wrote on his Facebook page: "My gladiator lay down his shield and gained his wings... absolutely heartbroken." UK justice, Anthony Hayden, earlier rejected what he said was a final legal appeal by the parents of saying they the parents could not take the terminally-ill baby take to Italy for treatment. In his ruling, the justice said it "represents the final chapter in the life of this extraordinary little boy." http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/uk-judge-holds-hearing-sick-toddler-alfie-evans-54697519 ***
VATICAN (CNS): The Italian government granted citizenship to Alfie Evans, a seriously ill British toddler, in a last-minute effort to prevent doctors in the United Kingdom (UK) from withdrawing life-support.
In a brief note on April 23 the Italian foreign ministry said that foreign minister, Angelino Alfano, and interior minister, Marco Minniti, had “granted Italian citizenship to little Alfie.”
The baby’s parents, Tom Evans and Kate James, lost their latest battle on April 23 to keep doctors from removing Alfie’s life-support when the European Court of Human Rights refused to intervene.
Doctors in the UK been unable to make a definitive diagnosis of the 23-month-old child’s degenerative neurological condition, but they have said keeping him on life-support would be “futile.”
A high court judge backed a lower court’s ruling allowing the hospital to go against the wishes of the family.
Tom Evans flew to Rome and met Pope Francis on April 18, asking for help get his son asylum in Italy. The pope reiterated that “the only author of life, from its beginning to its natural end, is God.”
The Holy See-administered Bambino Gesù in Rome, the largest paediatric hospital and research centre in Europe, has offered to care for Alfie.
The foreign ministry said, “The Italian government hopes that being an Italian citizen would allow the immediate transfer of the baby to Italy.”
Three specialists from Bambino Gesù flew to Liverpool and examined Alfie. According to the president of the hospital, “a positive outcome would be difficult, but the baby’s suffering can be alleviated.”
