Right before the tragic death of 11-month-old Charlie Gard in a United Kingdom hospice Friday, a sober warning was issued to President Donald Trump by a group of parental rights legal experts – alerting him that United Nations policies could soon sway court rulings in the United States … effectively sentencing terminally ill children to an early death.
The day after a U.K. judge made the final ruling that Charlie Gard was to be moved to a hospice to live his last day(s) – rejecting his parents’ request to let him spend the last days of his life with them at home – he died.
“The decision came after a hospital – and the courts all the way up to the European Court of Human Rights – decided Charlie would be better off dead,” WND reported. “His parents gave up their court fight to move him to America for an experimental treatment this week when they were told that the time used by the hospital’s court fight – many months – consumed all of the time during which the treatment might have helped their son.”
Parents and president beware
After examining at the rationale and influence behind the tragic decision, the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is pleading with Trump to break America free from the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, as the Christian legal experts on parental rights warned that the such legislation strips away the ability of parents to decide what is best for their children – essentially handing it over to the government.
“The Charlie Gard situation highlights the stark difference between our national values and those of internationalists who believe that government bureaucrats and the courts should decide how children should be raised – and even whether a life is worth living,” HSLDA attorneys explained in their letter to the White House, noting that the Clinton administration signed the convention, but Senate never signed it. “[The international strategy] elevates government bureaucrats over parents in deciding what is in a child’s ‘best interests.’ It is this same standard that has enabled bureaucrats and courts in the United Kingdom to overrule the wishes of Charlie Gard’s own parents.”
HSLDA is fearful that the U.N. convention will not only have the effect of stripping away America’s sovereignty as a nation, but undermine parental rights in numerous areas – including a parent’s right to teach his or her own children.
“Under the Supremacy Clause found in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, treaties ratified by the U.S. Senate become ‘the supreme law of the land,’” the letter to Trump continues. “We fear that if the U.S. Senate ever ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, it would only be a matter of time before cases like Charlie Gard’s in the United Kingdom were common-place on our own shores.”
Trump is urged in the document to withdraw the U.S. as a signatory of the convention – or face dire consequences in the near future … such as the tragedy experienced by Charlie Gard and his helpless parents.
“Withdrawing the United States … would ensure that no family in our nation would ever need to fear going through the ordeal that Charlie Gard and his family are currently undergoing,” HSLDA attorneys assured the president earlier this week.
HSLDA Director of Federal Relations William Estrada said that the U.N. must not be allowed to let its globalist mindset put doctors and judges above parents when it comes to determining life and death decisions about children and their wellbeing.
“When courts and medical authorities in England can overrule parents’ wishes and declare it is in the best interest of a child to let him die, it’s time to redouble efforts to protect parental rights here in America,” Estrada stressed.
Removing hope
Even though Charlie Gard had a severe life-threatening medical condition, his parents were hopeful that the right treatment could give their son a chance.
“Charlie Gard was born with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, a rare genetic condition which affects neurological and muscular development, and he’s been treated at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital since October,” WND’s Bob Unruh explained. “But the hospital requested – and the British courts decided – that he should be removed from life support.”
Seeing a glimmer of light for their son after researching what American doctors could possibly do to help their son, his parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, tried to take him to the U.S. so he could receive experimental treatment, but courts in the U.K. would not grant his release – making him a “prisoner of the State.”
“They gave up their court battle just this week when they learned that the treatment possibly could have greatly helped their son – had it been started months ago,” Unruh recounted. “But those months were consumed by the hospital’s court fight to let the child die.”
Even though the international community rallied behind Charlie – including Trump, members of the U.S. Congress and even Pope Francis – insisting that he should receive the treatment his parents desired, the U.K. courts held their ground until the baby took in his last breath on Friday.
Days before Charlie’s death, his parents vented their frustration with the system that had the power to bring life – instead of death – to their son.
“A whole lot of time has been wasted,” they lamented, according to WND. “We are now in July and our poor boy has been left to just lie in [the] hospital for months without any treatment whilst lengthy court battles have been fought. Tragically having had Charlie’s medical notes reviewed by independent experts, we now know had Charlie been given the treatment sooner, he would have had the potential to be a normal healthy little boy. Despite his condition in January, Charlie’s muscles were in pretty good shape and far from showing irreversible catastrophic structural brain damage.”
Inexcusable
While speaking in London’s Royal Court of Justice, Yates described her dismay not long before her son passed away, as she and her husband emphasized that they “should have been trusted as parents” by the court and the hospital.
“Charlie was left to lie [in Great Ormond Street Hospital] and deteriorate,” Yates charged before the judge, according to a news release issued by the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network (TSLHN). “We wanted Charlie to have the chance … [there] was never false hope, as confirmed by many experts. Now we’ll never know.”
Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network President Bobby Schindler impressed the fact that Charlie did not have to die the way he did – and as soon as he did.
“The international drama of Charlie’s case could have been avoided if Chris and Connie had been allowed their basic right as parents to get the treatment for Charlie they sought from the beginning,” Schindler declared. “Charlie deserved the best available treatment in a timely fashion. Instead of providing that, the U.K. medical and legal fields let Charlie languish and deteriorate to the point where treatments that have worked for other children like him no longer had a chance. Charlie Gard is a victim of a culture of medical indifference that turned out to be as corrosive and ultimately lethal as was his underlying genetic condition. His parents are heroes for fighting for him.”
Giving up and saying goodbye
The day before Charlie died – just after the U.K. judge delivered his order to move him to hospice and remove his life support – Yates read a statement during an earlier hearing at the Family Division of the High Court.
“We are now going to spend our last precious moments with our son Charlie, who unfortunately won’t make his first birthday in just under two weeks’ time,” she shared, according to The Telegraph.
In her statement, she announced that she and her husband were giving up their fight – calling their son a hero.
“We just want some peace with our son – no hospital, no lawyers, no courts, no media, just quality time with Charlie –away from everything to say goodbye to him in the most loving way,” Yates expressed on Thursday, according to a CNN report posted by Fox 8. “Mummy and Daddy love you so much, Charlie, we always have and we always will and we are so sorry that we couldn’t save you. We had the chance, but we weren’t allowed to give you that chance. Sweet dreams, baby. Sleep tight, our beautiful little boy.”
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Copyright American Family News. Reprinted with permission.
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