LAUSR

The parents of Charlie Gard have decided to end their legal fight over the treatment of their terminally ill baby son. Charlie’s parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, have been fighting for the right to remove Charlie, who has infantile onset encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, from the care of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children to take him to the United States for experimental treatment. But their barrister, Grant Armstrong, announced in court on 24 July that they wished to withdraw from legal proceedings. In June, Charlie’s parents lost their appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to overturn a previous decision made by the High Court in April allowing Great Ormond Street Hospital to withdraw Charlie’s life support.1 The case returned to the High Court earlier this month after the hospital applied for a fresh hearing in light of claims about new evidence of a potential treatment for his condition.2 In a position statement issued at the High Court on 24 …