Monday, April 16, 2018

In a Stunning Turnaround, Court of Appeal to Hear Alfie Evans Case on Monday

Tom Evans and Son Alfie Evans

By Dave Andrusko
National Right to Life

As a peaceful crowd of upwards of a thousand people quietly demonstrates outside the hospital where he is a patient, there has been a flurry of activity in the last 24 hours in the case of Alfie Evans, whose ventilator had been ordered disconnected by Mr. Justice Hayden, the trial judge.

Most importantly, as of Wednesday, it appeared as if the ventilator assisting the 23-month-old gravely ill toddler was about to be imminently disconnected, although Judge Hayden had ordered the date kept secret. Now there will be another meeting this coming Monday in the Court of Appeal.

Here’s how the Liverpool Echo, which has provided exhaustive coverage of the battle by Alfie’s parents to move him to Italy or Germany for further diagnosis and treatment, described what happened yesterday:

But, as hundreds gathered outside Alder Hey children’s hospital to protest the decision, the judge overseeing the case [Hayden] is understood to have issued an emergency order paving the way for a further hearing on Monday at the Court of Appeal.

Kate James with Son Alfie Evans
The campaign for Alfie’s care to continue, led by his parents Tom Evans and Kate James, was dealt a devastating blow at the High Court last week when Mr. Justice Hayden specified a date for when the 23-month-old’s medical support could be withdrawn.

But on Thursday night the emergency order, written as up to one thousand backers of the campaign group Alfie’s Army gathered outside Alder Hey, appeared to supersede that decision pending further legal arguments.

Alfie’s Army,” which now has 130,452 members, posted a thank you last night from the parents on its Facebook page:

From the bottom of Tom and Kate’s heart, thank you so much for all your support tonight. Coming together at such short notice for something you all believe strongly in is amazing and we couldn’t of (sic) asked for any better army members than you all.”

All this took place against a backdrop in which attorneys for Tom and Kate charged that Alder Hey Hospital “treats ‘Duty of Care’ as ‘Duty to Kill.’”

Attorney Pavel Stroilov of the Christian Legal Centre, sent Mr. Evans a letter at his request, declaring that “a removal [of Alfie] would be lawful under English law.”

He went to say, “Alfie is only in hospital because you, his parents, voluntarily sought its healthcare services. Alfie retains the right to self-discharge from hospital. He is not imprisoned there. Because of his minority, it is for you, as his parents, to make a decision to self-discharge or to stay at hospital.”

Mr. Evans, in turn, posted a video in which he said that the hospital had called in police to stop the transfer. There were more allegations in a press release—including that the hospital was: 

“locking all doors, setting of a fire alarm and removing all children from [the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit]. This merely proves first that Alder Hey is acting in violation of parental rights, second that Alfie is indeed a prisoner if the police are being used, and third their tactics are simply hysterical.”



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