The British courts have blood on their hands. Today, Charlie Gard’s parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, have dropped their legal battle to take their son to the United States for experimental treatment. According to the couple’s barrister, Grant Armstrong, irreversible muscle and tissue damage suffered by eleven-month-old Charlie has made it too late for the experimental treatment to have any effect.

Chris Gard and Connie Yates spent months fighting for their son, who received offers of help from Pope Francis and President Trump. Unfortunately, despite raising over a million dollars for his cause, time wasting by the British Courts have forced Charlie’s parents to switch off his life-support.

Charlie suffered from a rare mitochondrial disorder known as Mitochondrial DNA Depletion Syndrome. The condition left him paralysed and unable to breathe unaided. On June 30th, 2017, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against transporting Charlie to the United States and ordered his life support be switched off.

Charlie’s parents issued the following statement:

“This is one of the hardest things that we will ever have to do, which is let our beautiful Charlie go. Put simply, this is about a sweet, gorgeous, innocent little boy who was born with a rare disease who had a real, genuine chance at life, and a family who loved him so very dearly and that’s why we fought so hard for him. As Charlie’s devoted and loving parents, we have decided it is no longer in Charlie’s best interest to pursue treatment, and we will let our son go and be with the angels. Our son is an absolute warrior and we could not be prouder of him, and we will miss him terribly. His body, heart, and soul may soon be gone, but his spirit will live on for eternity, and he will make a difference to peoples’ lives for years to come, we will make sure of that. 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, and we will ask our privacy is respected at this very difficult time. To Charlie, we say, mummy and daddy, we love you so much. We always have and we always will and we are so sorry that we couldn’t save you.  Sweet dreams, baby. Sleep tight, our beautiful little boy. We love you. Thank you”

Charlie Gard’s case is one of the greatest examples of the evil which can be inflicted when governments and the courts are vested with too much power.