I wrote about Charlie Gard the other day and struggled with every word. I’m a parent who would and has gone to the mat for my child in terms of health and well-being. I’m also one who has witnessed first hand diagnosis that mean heartbreak for family and friends. The desire for those words and that feeling to be taken back is something everyone goes through at some point. As I pointed out in the previous post, we are lucky here in the United States in that we can, even against doctor’s advice and wishes, get a second opinion or a different kind of healthcare can be sought out.

Not so for Charlie Gard. Well-meaning as they may be, the ultimate decision for Charlie Gard’s care lies in the hands of his parents.

Unfortunately and infuriatingly we have watched the very opposite play out.

I get that the chances of Charlie’s survival were very slim. His parents fully recognized that. I get that the doctors overseeing his care were skeptical and possibly got a bit of their egos in the way in terms of having their care questioned. Their refusal to step aside and let another medical professional take a look and think outside the box should send red flags out to us all. 

Furthermore, the refusal of the courts to let Charlie’s parents make the decisions is incredibly problematic on a moral scale.

Unfortunately and sadly, due to all the delays, due to the feet dragging, due to the massive roadblocks in front of them, Charlie’s parents have made a decision, an incredibly heartbreaking one.

The parents of terminally-ill baby Charlie Gard have ended their legal challenge to take him to the US for experimental treatment.

A lawyer representing Chris Gard and Connie Yates told the High Court that “time had run out” for the baby.

Grant Armstrong said Charlie’s parents had made the decision because an American doctor said it was too late to give him nucleoside therapy.

“The parents’ worst fears have been confirmed”, Mr Armstrong said.

“It is now too late to treat Charlie,” he continued.

It was too late to try the nucleoside therapy on Charlie. TOO LATE.

Charlie’s parents wanted to try the therapy back in December of 2016 or this January. They had the money to pay for it. The medical community at Great Ormond Street Hospital and numerous courts said no. Would it have been too late then if those entities had stepped out of the way?

“Had Charlie been given the treatment sooner, he would have had the potential to be a normal, healthy little boy,” Gard’s father says pic.twitter.com/OdTS40z4Zy

— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 24, 2017

We will never know. Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) issued a statement, which you can read here.

There are no winners here.

“We are about to do the hardest thing we will ever have to do, which is to let our beautiful little Charlie go,” Charlie Gard’s father says pic.twitter.com/sx99PyYCLQ

— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 24, 2017

Those who lose the most in this? Charlie Gard and our humanity.