The cases of Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard. Who should decide when to end a therapy?

Why is the approach to discontinuing life-sustaining treatment different in the UK and Poland? Based on the case of RS

“…For example, the case of Charlie Gard, a British boy suffering from a rare mitochondrial disease, was controversial and generated much emotion and public debate about medical ethics, parental rights, and the criterion of best interest [1][2][3][4]. The dispute over the cessation of his life support has involved not only the public but also many authorities, including Pope Francis.…”

Children as voices and images for medicinal cannabis law reform

“…A dying child in Western Australia, Oshin Kiszko, became highly publicised in the context of attempts made by his parents, contrary to medical advice, to take him into palliative care, abandoning the provision of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, after he was diagnosed and operated on for medulloblastoma, a form of brain tumour (Okninski 2016;Freckelton 2016aFreckelton , 2016b. In the United Kingdom, Ashya King, diagnosed with medulloblastoma (O'Brien 2014), Charlie Gard, diagnosed with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome (Wheeler 2018;Ross 2020;Montgomery 2019;Laszewska-Hellriegel 2019;Freckelton 2016aFreckelton , 2016b, Alfie Evans, diagnosed with GABA-transaminase deficiency (see Isaacs and Preisz 2019;Laszewska-Hellriegel 2019;Freckelton 2018), and Isaiah Haastrup diagnosed with severe hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (Jonas and Ryan 2020) attracted saturation publicity (Brick et al 2020). This was in a context of their parents seeking diverse forms of local and international medical assistance for their children's serious health conditions, although in a number of the instances their parents' proposals for treatment were regarded by clinicians as futile and not in the best interests of the children (see Savulescu and Wilkinson 2018).…”