Home page News
DECR chairman’s statement on the fate of ten-…

DECR chairman’s statement on the fate of ten-month-old Charlie Gard from Great Britain

All courts, including the European Court of Human Rights, passed a death sentence on a child suffering from a rare genetic condition and did not heed his parents’ plea to give him a chance. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, commented on the situation in his statement.

A great many people all over the world remain deeply concerned over the fate of ten-month-old Charlie Gard from Great Britain who is suffering from a rare genetic condition. According to the English doctors, the child is in the “terminal stages” and nothing can be done to help him. Medics at the Great Ormond Street Hospital believe it is necessary to switch off the child’s ventilator and provide him palliative care so that he can “die with dignity.”

His parents explored the options of alternative treatment. The American doctors are ready to receive the child and give him a course of experimental therapy which had positive results with other infant patients and helped relieve the symptoms. People showed sympathy and raised over £1.3 million to pay for Charlie’s treatment in the USA. However, the Great Ormond Street Hospital went to court to decide the child’s fate.

The problem of the so-called “passive euthanasia” arose as a result of progress in medical technologies which allow to sustain respiration and blood circulation in a patient for many years in the hope of recovery. Earlier the irreversible respiratory and circulatory arrest was considered as a criterion of death. However, nowadays the act of death is becoming the process of dying, dependent on a doctor’s decision, thus laying special responsibility on medicine. The daily cost of intensive care unit is high. Hospitals’ resources for keeping people alive are limited, taking into consideration that new patients with severe  medical condition are coming in and there not enough facilities for everyone.

However, in Charlie Gard’s case, there are doctors in the USA who are ready to give him treatment, and there are funds. Despite all this, the court made the decision that it is in “Charlie’s best interests” to turn off his life support machine, to provide him palliative care and let him “die with dignity.”

The modern Western civilization postulates that human life is the absolute value; yet, in many countries, taking life of gravely ill people, including children, is becoming a legalized practice.

What aggravates this tragic situation is that parents cannot make their own decision. Why does it happen that a family living in a free democratic country in the 21st century gets locked within one clinic because of the court’s decision and cannot use other clinic’s services? Why does it happen that parents are deprived of the right to fight for their baby’s life by any means they have and cannot make their own decisions concerning their child’s treatment? It is an act of violence against the parents’ conscience, an act of harassment against them, sadism in humanitarian disguise.

The dreadful decision of the European Court of Human Rights indicated the deepest crisis of the very concept of human rights protection. The right to life is giving way to the right to death.

It is my hope that Charlie Gard’s parents will have an opportunity to give their child such treatment as they deem correct. I pray that they have strength to endure this terrible ordeal, and believe that the merciful Lord will not deprive little Charlie of His love and will turn his sufferings into the pledge of the life eternal.

DECR Communication Service

Share:
Phone conversation took place between the Primates of Russian and Serbian Orthodox Churches

17.11.2024

Telephone conversation held between His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and the Primate of the Malankara Church of India

01.11.2024

Address by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill at the VIII World Congress of Compatriots Living Abroad

30.10.2024

Order of Right-Believing Prince Daniel of Moscow presented to Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk by Patriarch Kirill

24.10.2024

Primate of the Russian Church celebrates Divine Liturgy in the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius Lavra on the commemoration day of St. Sergius of Radonezh

09.10.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates Little Vespers and Akathistos hymn to St. Sergius in the Lavra of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius

07.10.2024

Message from the Primate of the Russian Church to His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia in connection with blasphemous act on the ruins of ancient Ulpiana

14.09.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates on the feast of the 300th anniversary of the transfer of relics of St.Alexander Nevsky to St. Petersburg

12.09.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates All-night Vigil at the Christ the Savior Cathedral on the eve of Transfiguration

18.08.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' met with the Ambassador of India to Russia

30.07.2024

Catholicos-Patriarch Mar Awa III: Ukrainian government’s support for schism and persecution of the major canonical Church is a religious pogrom against the faithful Orthodox Christians of that country

24.07.2024

Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church consecrates the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral in the city of Tver.

21.07.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates Liturgy at the Lavra of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius on the commemoration day of the saint

18.07.2024

The Primate of the Russian Church celebrates All-night Vigil at the Lavra of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius

17.07.2024

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill celebrates Little Vespers at the Lavra of the Holy Trinity and St. Sergius and reads akathist to the saint

17.07.2024

Phone conversation took place between the Primates of Russian and Serbian Orthodox Churches

17.11.2024

Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk meets with His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Porfirije

17.11.2024

Conference dedicated to centennial of the Holy Trinity Russian church is held in Belgrade

16.11.2024

Delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church takes part in COP29 Summit of Religious Leaders

06.11.2024

DECR chairman concludes his visit to India

03.11.2024

Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk meets with young Indian Christians

02.11.2024

Primate of Malankara Church of India receives Order of Glory and Honour, 1st Class

02.11.2024

DECR chairman takes part in church celebrations in India

02.11.2024

Telephone conversation held between His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and the Primate of the Malankara Church of India

01.11.2024

DECR Chairman has begun his visit to India

31.10.2024

Work of the Commission for Dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is declared successful

24.10.2024

Synod acknowledges importance of bilateral projects carried out in collaboration with Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

24.10.2024

Order of Right-Believing Prince Daniel of Moscow presented to Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk by Patriarch Kirill

24.10.2024

DECR Chairman heads celebrations for the fifteenth anniversary of the consecration of the Dormition Church at the Russian embassy in Beijing.

19.10.2024

Saint Petersburg Theological Academy hosts conference on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) entitled ‘The Person of Metropolitan Nikodim in the History of the Church’.

16.10.2024

Metropolitan Hilarion: Many things in a person's life depend on faith

29.08.2021

Metropolitan Hilarion: The Holy Spirit is the main treasure of the Christian soul

01.08.2021

Metropolitan Hilarion: Holiness is a constant striving to imitate the Lord Jesus Christ

27.06.2021

Metropolitan Hilarion: God does not want to condemn, but to save us

07.03.2021

Metropolitan Hilarion: The Lord always grants to us the opportunity to display our talents

24.01.2021

Metropolitan Hilarion: The Lord has imbued the waters of Jordan with his divine presence to wash away human sins

19.01.2021

Metropolitan Hilarion: to repent means to change your way of life

17.01.2021

On commemoration day of St. Catherine, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk officiated at the Church of St. Catherine the Great Martyr In-the-Fields  the representation of the Orthodox Church in America

07.12.2020

Metropolitan Hilarion: We can always show compassion for people

29.11.2020

Metropolitan Hilarion celebrates on commemoration day of St. Varlaam of Khutyn at the church of ‘Joy to All the Afflicted’ icon of the Mother of God

19.11.2020

Metropolitan Hilarion: We should remember that the life of each human being is in the hands of God

06.11.2020

Metropolitan Hilarion: For God there is nothing impossible

25.10.2020

Metropoplitan Hilarion: The cross which was an instrument of dishonourable execution becomes the symbol of salvation for millions of people

27.09.2020

Metropolitan Hilarion: Eucharist is the wedding feast, to which Lord Jesus Christ invites each of us

13.09.2020

Metropolitan Hilarion: Faith alone is not enough for salvation

30.08.2020

Page is available in the following languages
Feedback

Fields marked by * are mandatory required

Send a message
Рус Укр Eng Deu Ελλ Fra Ita Бълг ქარ Срп Rom عرب