English Death Panel Sentences Two-Year-Old to Die

The English government has sentenced little Alfie Evans to die, and the European appeals courts have refused to hear his parent’s appeal. The government ordered all life support removed from Alfie, so for the last 36 hours his parents have taken turns giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

The government has also refused to allow Alfie’s parents to remove him from the hospital. The Baby Jesus Children’s Hospital in Rome has offered to care for Alfie. The hospital’s Director even flew to Liverpool, but hospital officials there refused to even speak to her. The Pope intervened and got the Italian government to grant Alfie Italian citizenship. The Italian government even has a military jet standing by to take Alfie to Rome. But the UK government still refuses to release him – even though he is now an Italian citizen.

The English High Court judge finally agreed to allow Alfie out of the hospital – but only if he is taken to a hospice facility to die or to his home. He specifically forbade Alfie’s parents from taking him to Italy.

Why is the government of the UK so anxious to kill Alfie? It’s all about the money. England’s Socialist “medical” system has given itself the right to decide who lives or dies – because it costs a lot of money to keep people alive. If in the “wisdom” of their death panel is that there is no hope for a certain patient, they – not the parents – decide when to “pull the plug.” They – not the parents – decided that it was in Alfie’s “best interest” to die. Somehow I doubt that little Alfie would agree.

This is terribly reminiscent of a similar case a year ago in which Great Britain murdered baby Charlie Gard. He was forcibly taken off life support after his parents lost a similar battle with judges and medical officials. In reaction, Americans have taken to social media, saying things like “Stories like Alfie Evans make me realize how grateful I am to live in America where freedom still exists.” Another young woman tweeted, “WAKE UP AMERICA! We cannot let this happen in the U.S.”

But – as Michelle Malkin writes, “It has happened — and continues to happen — in America. How quickly the public forgets.” Do you remember Terri Schiavo in 2005? A Florida judge ordered the brain-injured teen to be deprived of food and water. She died thirteen days later of dehydration – a terrible way to die. It would have been more merciful to give her a lethal injection. Then-Governor Jeb Bush tried to save her. But even he was helpless against the cabal of physicians, judges and bureaucrats who were determined that Terri had to die.

Malkin describes another tragedy that I had not known about. “In 2005, medical experts and child-welfare bureaucrats in the state of Massachusetts deemed 11-year-old Haleigh Poutre “virtually brain-dead,” in a “persistent vegetative state,” and not worth saving after she had suffered such brutal beatings and sexual abuse by her stepfather that she was left in a coma. Doctors at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and extermination agents at the Massachusetts Department of Social Services won a court order to remove Haleigh’s ventilator and feeding tube. They collaborated on a “treatment” schedule to starve her of nourishment and oxygen until she succumbed to “death with dignity.”

God had other ideas. After the government removed all life support, Haleigh emerged from the supposed “intractable vegetative state” and was able to move and breathe on her own. Today she is happy, healthy, and attends a special school. She is confined to a wheelchair, but she is alive. If your child (or you) had a choice between being legally put to death by the state or living in a wheelchair, which would you choose?

I have to admit that I just don’t understand why doctors, judges and “children’s services” seem so determined in these cases to end the lives of patients.  Isn’t a doctor’s first job to preserve life? Isn’t the governments first responsibility to protect life?

Ironically, as England was deciding that Alfie didn’t deserve a chance to live, a new prince was born. Imagine if this royal child had the same disease as Alfie, the same diagnosis, the same vital signs. Is there the slightest chance that he would be given a death sentence? You know there isn’t. The government would have moved heaven and earth, left no stone unturned searching for a cure. And if there were no cure, they would have done everything possible to keep him alive as long as possible, hoping for a miracle or a cure.

Doesn’t Alfie deserve as much? Under English Common Law everyone is equal. It seems that some are just more equal than others.

Amazingly, Ironically the Lord Chief Justice of England has called for people who disparage judges to face criminal charges. Not surprisingly, millions of British citizens are outraged by the actions of their government, and many have expressed their feelings toward the judge in the case – some quite strongly. A Facebook group named “Alfie’s Army no has almost 400,000 members, most of whom criticize the justice. I’m sure his feelings were hurt, and if the Chief Justice gets his way, the citizens who criticized him will go to jail. But he will live to sentence another Charlie Gard or Alfie Evans to die in the future.

Alfie’s parents didn’t ask for England to go the last mile to save their son. They just asked to be allowed to take him to Italy where there were loving people who would give their baby son a chance. They knew he might die anyway. They knew there were no guarantees. They just asked for what anyone should be able to have: Hope. But England has crushed even that.

The arrogance of the doctors, hospital administrators, and the judge is astonishing. The doctors say that there is no hope. What doctor has not seen miracles in his career? The Bible says that nothing is impossible with God. With thousands praying for a miracle, the hospital should not try to outguess God.

The egotistical Justice who ruled against life for Alfie is Anthony Hayden of the British High Court. He wrote that artificial ventilation was an assault on Alfie’s dignity. If that is true, then why do hospitals have artificial ventilation equipment? And if the doctors are right and Alfie is in a vegetative state, he has no consciousness and therefore no dignity to worry about. The government gives no logical or legal reason for its decision, other than it makes the rules, and it has decided that Alfie must die.

Our friend, our ally, England has become what they have fought against for centuries - a totalitarian government. When a government can decide whose life is worth saving and whose is not, they have crossed the line and become a totalitarian government in the eyes of the world.  Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!”

Please pray for baby Alfie. Pray for his healing. Pray that the government will stop trying to ensure his death. And pray that the government, the doctors and the courts will turn away from the culture of death that obsesses them.


[Editor's note: Young Alfie Evans died on 4/28/18, as reported in BBC.com.]