CNA Staff, Nov 8, 2023 / 15:25 pm
A terminally ill baby in England is set to be removed from life support on Thursday following a judge’s ruling, despite the pleading of her parents to allow the Vatican children’s hospital to treat the child in Italy.
Indi Gregory, born in February, suffers from a rare degenerative mitochondrial disease and has been receiving life-sustaining treatment on a ventilator at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, England.
Gregory’s parents have repeatedly appealed to take her to Rome for treatment after England’s high court ruled that it was in the child’s “best interests” to be taken off life support. In a desperate effort to save Gregory’s life, the Italian government decided in an emergency meeting on Monday to grant her Italian citizenship and to cover the cost of her medical treatment at the Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital.
According to the British advocacy group Christian Concern, Justice Robert Peel ruled on Wednesday following a Nov. 7 “urgent online hearing” that Gregory’s life support must be removed at 2 p.m. local time on Nov. 9, contrary to the wishes of her parents and over and against Italy’s attempts to help.