Judge: Baby Charlie Gard will end life in hospice, not home

Critically ill baby Charlie Gard will be transferred to a hospice to die Thursday unless his parents and a hospital agree on an end-of-life plan that could potentially keep the child alive for a bit longer, a British judge has ruled.

High Court judge Nicholas Francis gave 11-month-old Charlie’s parents and the hospital that has been treating him until noon Thursday to come to terms on a care plan for the infant’s final hours or days.

The baby suffers from a rare genetic disease, mitochondrial depletion syndrome, which has caused brain damage and left him unable to breathe unaided. Recent tests found Charlie has irreversible muscular damage.

“It is in Charlie’s best interests to be moved to a hospice and for him at that point to be moved to a palliative care regime only,” the judge said as a medical and legal battle that has drawn international attention nears a wrenching conclusion.

The parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, spent months trying to persuade Great Ormond Street Hospital to let Charlie go to the United States for experimental treatment. They gave up their fight on Monday, acknowledging the window of opportunity to help him had closed. On Tuesday, they said they hoped to bring their son, whose 1st birthday is next week, home to die. Francis said Charlie’s mother and father now accept that the only options for their son “are the hospital or the hospice.”

The Thursday deadline is meant to yield a plan for what happens after the baby is transferred to a hospice. The parents want him kept on his ventilator for a time. The hospital, in fighting the parents’ earlier effort to secure experimental treatment, had indicated it was responsible for sparing Charlie unnecessary pain.

Francis said if the parties do not reach an agreement, Charlie will be taken to hospice and the ventilation system keeping him alive will be turned off.