House Republicans to offer bill to help parents of critically ill British child

House Republicans are stepping in to help the parents of Charlie Gard, the critically ill British child at the center of an international debate over whether the government can make life and death decisions.

In an op-ed for Fox News on Tuesday, Reps. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) and Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said they are proposing legislation to grant Gard’s parents lawful permanent U.S. status so they can “pursue their best hope for Charlie.”

Gard was born with a rare genetic condition called encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome (MDDS) and is unable to move or breathe on his own, according to media reports.

His parents want to bring him to the U.S. for experimental treatment, but London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, where he is staying, argues he would suffer harm because there is no prospect he will recover. The hospital also told Gard’s parents they couldn’t take their son home to die.

{mosads}The British Supreme Court backed the hospital and the European Court of Human Rights refused to hear an appeal from Gard’s parents.

Trent, who co-chairs the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, called the European court’s ruling barbaric on Tuesday.

“If this ruling stands, how long before each of us is just one bad accident, one disease, one diagnosis away from being too old, too fragile, too disabled, too ‘unfit,’ to be worth keeping alive?” he wrote. 

“A ruling class that can take away Charlie’s humanity is one that can take away yours, too. Or worse: imagine if your own child’s health required life-saving medical care, which you fiercely sought to provide — only to be told by doctors that you no longer have a right to even try to remove and protect your own child from certain death?”

President Trump tweeted his support for the critically ill boy last month. 

“If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so,” Trump tweeted.

The case is now back before the courts. A British judge who originally agreed with the hospital in April agreed to hear new information about Gard’s condition and potential treatment this week. Gard’s parents have until Wednesday afternoon to present new evidence showing why their son should receive the experimental treatment, ABC news reported.

The New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan has reportedly said it would “admit and evaluate” Charlie for treatment, as long as the baby can be transported safely to the facility, Fox News reported.