On April 23, 2018, Alder Hey removed Alfie’s ventilator, per its “end of life plan.”
But Alfie didn’t follow the plan.
He started breathing on his own. The next day, when Alfie got tired and his lips turned blue, the hospital refused to intervene. So Alfie’s mom and dad gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to keep their baby alive.
Alder Hey then removed Alfie’s food and water. After all, the hospital had an “end of life plan” for Alfie that only included one outcome: Alfie’s death. Eventually, the hospital relented and provided an oxygen tube and hydration for comfort. But they remain committed to the plan, whichnow includes starving Alfie to death.
As I write this, an air ambulance is waiting at Liverpool Airport to transport Alfie to Bambino Gesu. Even in the face of—or maybe because of—Alfie’s odds-defying will to live, Justice Hayden confirmed his refusal to allow baby Alfie to be transferred to another hospital.
This is not dignity. This is not health care. This has nothing to do with Alfie’s “best interests.” This is MURDER.
Tens of thousands starved and dehydrated to death since 2000
Alfie Evans’ shocking mistreatment might appear to the casual reader to be nothing more than a strange and disturbing exception to the National Health Service’s repudiation of euthanasia, but it isn’t. The terrible truth is that repeated and very credible reports based on the government’s own death certificates for NHS patients have shown that literally tens of thousands of patients have died of starvation and thirst in UK hospitals since 2000. Even worse, the NHS’s own policies expressly support the practice of withholding nutrition and hydration from patients written off as “dying.”