Alfie Evans: how the fight for his life has unfolded

The parents of a terminally ill toddler are launching a last-ditch appeal against a court ruling that their child is not allowed to go to Rome for further treatment.

Doctors at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool turned off Alfie Evans’ life-support machine this week. But Alfie’s parents, Tom Evans and Kate James, say their son is continuing to breathe unassisted and that his life-support should be reinstated.

The couple have vowed to continue fighting to be allowed to take Alfie to the Vatican’s Bambino Gesu paediatric hospital, despite the judge ruling on Tuesday that all the Italian hospital would be able to offer was palliative care.

The 23-month-old boy has been at the centre of a “sometimes acrimonious six-month dispute which has seen a series of court battles”, says The Independent.

One of the dilemmas that the case has raised is “whether doctors are the right people to determine whether withdrawing life-support treatment is in ‘the best interests’ of a terminally ill child”, says the BBC.

A key argument presented by Evans, 21, and James, 20, “was that they should decide what is best for their son”, adds the broadcaster.

Who is Alfie Evans and how has his case unfolded?

The toddler has been “living in a coma for well over a year after being struck down with a mystery illness”, reports The Sun.

Doctors believe Alfie has a degenerative neurological condition, which has led to parallels being drawn with the case of Charlie Gard.

In February, a High Court judge ruled that doctors could stop providing life support for Alfie, against his parents’ wishes, saying the child required “peace, quiet and privacy”.

Alfie’s parents have lost a series of legal challenges against that ruling, including at the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.

What happens next?

Delivering his ruling yesterday, Justice Hayden told the High Court that the decision not to allow Alfie to be taken to Rome “represents the final chapter in the case of this extraordinary little boy”.

During the hearing, at Manchester Civil Justice Centre, the judge said that “the best Evans’s parents could hope for was to explore the options of removing him from intensive care either to a ward, a hospice or his home”, says The Guardian.

All medical experts agreed that further treatment was futile and that it would be against Alfie’s best interests to travel to Italy, Justice Hayden added.

A spokesperson for the Christian Legal Centre, which is representing Alfie’s parents, said the couple are appealing again, with a hearing scheduled at the Court of Appeal today.

“The Court of Appeal have reached out to us and said they are going to set back three judges to hear the case,” Alfie’s dad said last night. “In reality, he could be in Italy right now. We all know the military air force are ready to take him and a team of doctors are there.

“We’ve also got a German air ambulance team, who attempted to take him in the first place, ready... the reality is these people are eager to get him out of the country and I’m not giving up because Alfie’s breathing away, he’s not suffering.”