Readers sound off: Charlie Gard’s life wasn’t in his parent’s hands
The parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard dropped their legal bid to send him to the U.S. for an experimental treatment after new tests showed that the window of opportunity to help him had closed. Comments are edited for clarity and grammar:
The hospital, its doctors and the British courts effectively sentenced poor Charlie to death. Please, pray for Charlie to gently go to the angels and for the Lord to give his parents strength, comfort and love during this very emotional time.
— Brian Grammer
Charlie Gard case threatens all parents
You can hold on to hope above all else, but in the practical sense, this sadly looks to be a lost cause.
— Nickolas Ferra
Medical research has been done before on humans. We shouldn’t treat the baby’s mitochondrial depletion disease as an incurable disease. We should allow medical experts to look for new and yet-to-be proven treatments.
These parents desperately love their son and wanted to exhaust every possible treatment to save his life. Having never been in their situation, I will not criticize their choices.
— Tim Hanson
People who think that a single-payer health care system is the panacea for all health care problems take note. This is the kind of situation you can expect when the government makes your health care decisions for you. When you add lack of choice, long wait times and the reduction of incentives for innovation, you find that single-payer systems have as many problems as any other system.
— Wray Tew
I would hate to live in Britain and be at the mercy of the courts over whether or not I knew what was best for my child. Shame on their judicial system for waiting, thus prolonging the damage to little Charlie. Perhaps if they had done treatment sooner, he would have had a chance.
— TJ Traci Smith
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