In a last, desperate move to save his son’s life, the father of seriously ill toddler Alfie Evans flew to the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis and ask for asylum for his son.
According to a BBC report, Tom Evans, said to the pope, “Your holiness save our son.”
Evans’ plea came after Britain’s court on Monday dismissed the latest appeal against a February court ruling that would allow Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool to withdraw Alfie’s life support.
Alfie suffers from a degenerative brain disease, encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome. The disease, which causes brain damage and an inability to move the limbs, has no known cure.
Earlier this month Pope Francis tweeted his support for Alfie:
“It is my sincere hope that everything necessary may be done in order to continue compassionately accompanying little Alfie Evans, and that the deep suffering of his parents may be heard. I am praying for Alfie, for his family and for all who are involved.”
Following today’s meeting at the Vatican, the Pope addressed the General Audience and appealed for Alfie’s life, saying that “the only author of life, from its beginning to its natural end, is God,” reported the Vatican News.
In his address, the pope said, “it is our duty to do all that is possible to safeguard life.”
He asked that everyone pray for “people, such as Vincent Lambert in France, little Alfie Evans in England, and others in different countries, who have been living, sometimes for a long time, in a condition of serious infirmity, (and are) medically assisted for their basic needs.”
These “delicate situations,” he said, are “very painful and complex. Let us pray that every sick person may always be respected in their dignity and cared for in an appropriate way for their condition, with the unanimous contribution of family members, doctors and other health-care workers, and with great respect for life.”
After losing a legal battle to move their son to another hospital in Britain where he would have received treatment, Alfie’s parents received an offer from the Vatican’s Bambio Gesù children’s hospital in Rome had to continue Alfie’s treatment.
The Liverpool hospital where Alfie has been treated has said that continuing to treat him would be “inhumane” and “futile,” and that taking him abroad for treatment was “expressly not in his best interests” reported the BBC.
According to thereport, Britain’s Supreme Court, which had refused to consider the case last month, is examining the parent’s latest appeal to overrule Monday’s decision.
And today we celebrate...