United Kingdom: judge says no to moving little Indi to Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome to be treated. Her parents won’t give up

No chances for the time being for Indi Gregory – the seven-month baby suffering from a rare condition of mitochondrial DNA whom British doctors do not intend to treat – to go to the Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome. Once again, the High Court Judge Robert Peel decided that it is “in the best interest” of the little girl that life sustaining treatment be stopped. The baby’s parents, Dean Gregory, 37, and Claire Stainforth, 35, who have been involved for weeks in an exhausting legal battle to save their daughter, are therefore not allowed to transfer her to Italy, where doctors believe she had good chances to survive. However, Judge Robert Peel decided that doctors cannot turn off the ventilator that is keeping Indi alive until 3.00 pm, Italian time, tomorrow, to allow her parents to file an appeal, again. It was actually the doctors of the “Queen’s Medical” of Nottingham, the hospital where the baby is now, who went to Court, because her parents, who claim that Indi responds to stimuli, cries, moves her arms and legs, oppose to have her life sustaining treatment turned off. As in the case of Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans, the State believes it knows and can protect the child’s interest better than her family. “Even if moving her to Italy would involve a few risks, the only option we are given in the United Kingdom is accepting Indi’s death”, stated the child’s father, Dean Gregory, who is defended by the lawyers of the pro-life charity “Christian Concern”. “The offer from Italy is the only chance we have to treat our daughter and, as parents, we want to go this way”.
Valentina Bombelli