Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni addresses the 78th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City Sept. 20, 2023. The Italian government granted citizenship to Indi Gregory, an 8-month-old child suffering from a degenerative disease who was at the center of a legal battle in the U.K. to keep her on life support. The Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu children's hospital offered to treat the child, who was refused further treatment in the U.K. (OSV News photo/Eduardo Munoz, Reuters)
NOTTINGHAM, England — British bishops expressed their condolences to Dean and Claire Gregory, parents of 8-month-old Indi, who died Nov. 13 after neither a court battle nor Italian citizenship granted to the infant prevented the British courts from halting her life support.
Following the death of baby Indi, Bishop Patrick McKinney of Nottingham and Auxiliary Bishop John Sherrington of Westminster, who is the lead bishop for life issues, wrote in a statement that they learned about the death of the child with "deep sadness," assuring the parents "of our prayers and those of all the Catholic Community, including Pope Francis, at this sad time."
“As a baptized child of God, we believe that she will now share in the joy of heaven after her short life which brought deep joy to her parents who loved and protected her as a precious gift of God," the bishops said.
The father of the girl said earlier that he was not religious, but he had chosen to have his child baptized Sept. 23 after feeling the "pull of hell" in their court battle to extend her life. Indi died at 1:45 a.m. U.K. time Nov. 13.
In a statement, Indi's father, Dean Gregory, said he and his wife, Claire, "are angry, heartbroken and ashamed. The NHS (National Health Service) and the Courts not only took away her chance to live a longer life, but they also took away Indi's dignity to pass away in the family home where she belonged."
In their statement Bishop McKinney and Bishop Sherrington thanked “all who worked so tirelessly to care for her” at the Queen’s Medical Center in Nottingham and at the hospice where she died.
They added that the legal battle between the NHS Trust and her parents showed again "the need for greater weight to be given to the parental voice in these complex and sensitive cases."
Indi Gregory is pictured Sept. 22, 2023, the day of her baptism. (OSV News photo/courtesy Indi Gregory family via Christian Concern)"A simple way to begin to remedy this," the bishops said, " would be to amend the Health and Care Act 2022 by reintroducing Baroness Ilora Finlay's amendment on 'Dispute resolution in children’s palliative care' formulated after the death of Charlie Gard," they said, recalling a similar case of a child whose life support was halted because of the court ruling in 2017.
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Center, an advocacy group that supported Indi's parents, said Nov. 13, "Our hearts are broken for Dean and Claire and their family. Please hold them in your prayers at this time."
At the Christian Legal Center, she said, "We have given our all, working day and night to support Indi's parents in their weeks, days and hours of need as they sought to protect their daughter and pursue justice."
"We have also worked to make known how important it is to uphold laws that wholly protect life and the rights of parents in the lives of their children. Doctors cannot be compelled to treat a patient against their conscience, but neither should they be the ones to prevent parents who secure specialist medical treatment for their child elsewhere from accessing that help," Williams said.
"Justice is done in the light and a truly compassionate society protects its most vulnerable," she emphasized.
The bishops added that they will "continue to contribute to wider discussions on questions of when treatment becomes disproportionate to any possible benefit and the duty of the continuation of basic care, including assisted nutrition and hydration, to protect the good of every child."
— OSV News
Italy's prime minister takes case of baby on life support to highest levels of diplomacy
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ROME — Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has urgently written to Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Alex Chalk of the United Kingdom calling for the two countries to officially collaborate on facilitating 8-month-old Indi Gregory's transfer to Rome under the Hague Convention.
Indi suffers from a rare metabolic disorder known as mitochondrial disease, and her family was fighting for her not to be removed from life support by court order, as was the case of several other children in the past, including Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard.
Meloni wrote to Chalk outlining the urgent appeal made by Indi's Italian guardian Nov. 9 to the U.K. High Court. Christian Concern, an advocacy group helping the family, said in a Nov. 10 statement that Meloni urged the British secretary to see that it is in Indi's "best interests to be transferred to Rome."
The appeal called on Justice Robert Peel to cede jurisdiction of the case to the child's Italian guardian under Article 9(2) of the 1996 Hague Convention: "Recognition, Enforcement and Cooperation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children."
After Indi was made an Italian citizen earlier in the week, the Italian consul in Manchester, England, Matteo Corradini, was appointed guardianship judge for the infant and issued an emergency measure recognizing the authority of the Italian courts in this case. The measure assumes protection of Indi, whose life is in imminent danger, and authorize her immediate transfer the Bambino Gesù Paediatric Hospital in Rome
The Court of Appeal was due to make a ruling late Nov. 10 on whether Indi's life support should be removed at the Queen's Medical Center in Nottingham, a hospice or the family home.
The Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital in Rome has agreed to accept Indi for treatment and to carry out a palliative procedure proposed by medical experts for Indi known as RVOT stenting, or right ventricular outflow tract stent, to improve pulmonary flow in infants. The Italian government has offered to fund the treatment at no cost to the National Health Service or U.K. taxpayers.
NHS officials and U.K. courts, however, have refused to allow the move or work on a risk assessment of such a move with a specialist air-ambulance service. Instead, the U.K. courts have repeatedly rubber stamped the NHS position on the case and ruled that it is in Indi's "best interests" to be allowed to die.
So far, there has been no response or comment from the U.K. government on the case.
— OSV News
Italy grants citizenship to critically ill 8-month-old refused further treatment in UK
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ROME — The Italian government granted citizenship to Indi Gregory, an 8-month-old child suffering from a degenerative disease who is at the center of a legal battle in the U.K. to keep her on life support.
After a Nov. 6 emergency meeting, the Italian Council of Ministers said the resolution granting citizenship was made after the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu children's hospital expressed its willingness to offer treatment for the child who suffers from mitochondrial disease, an illness that prevents cells from producing energy.
"The Italian government has also communicated to the hospital management and the family its commitment to cover the costs of health treatments that are deemed necessary," the council said.
In a statement released by Christian Concern, a nonprofit advocacy group working with the family, Indi's father, Dean Gregory, said Italians had given him and his wife, Claire, "hope and faith back in humanity."
"The Italians have shown us care and loving support and I wish the U.K. authorities were the same," he said. "I'm very proud to say Indi has Italian citizenship and I thank the Italian government and the Italian people from the bottom of my heart."
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also commented on the decision, expressing her support to the family and her willingness to protect the infant's life.
"They say there isn't much hope for little Indi, but I will do what I can to defend her life until the end. And to defend the right of her mom and dad to do all they can for her," Meloni said Nov. 6 on X, formerly Twitter.
The decision is the latest turn of events in the battle by the parents to save their daughter's life. Lawyers representing the doctors at Nottingham's Queen Medical Center argued that the disease is incurable and that any further treatment would only cause Indi more pain.
The High Court ruled in favor of the doctors' request to limit Indi's treatment, despite arguments from the child's parents saying that the doctors were misleading in their assessment of the child's condition.
"It is criminal that parents who are trying to do everything for their child in such difficult circumstances are taken to court and have to contend with the weight of the whole system coming against them," Dean Gregory said in an Oct. 13 statement after the court's decision.
Subsequently, representatives of Bambino Gesu, which is the largest pediatric hospital and research center in Europe, offered to treat Indi, leading the parents to appeal to the U.K. High Court for Indi to be transferred from Nottingham to Rome.
However, the court denied their appeal Nov. 4, siding with the doctors who argued that any further treatment was futile.
According to Christian Concern, one of the appellate court judges who denied the appeal, Lady Justice Eleanor King, had made similar rulings "in a number of high-profile end-of-life cases involving children, including Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans and Archie Battersbee."
The group also said that although Indi was granted Italian citizenship, the hospital staff at the Queen's Medical Center threatened to end Indi's life support "despite a Compassionate Care Plan prepared by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust."
The plan stated that "parents should be supported to decide where compassionate care would be best delivered," including "a hospice, the hospital, or home."
Nevertheless, the advocacy group said Indi's parents said they would appeal in court after being informed that despite their request for the child to go home, the hospital was going ahead with extubation.
Simone Pillon, a former Italian senator and lawyer assisting the family's efforts to transfer Indi to Rome, said on X that he was "now working to remove the remaining obstacles and bring her to Rome soon."
According to the Reuters news agency, an Italian government source said the parents would be able to appeal to the Italian consulate in Britain to request that Indi be airlifted to Italy.
A spokesperson for Bambino Gesu hospital declined to comment on the Italian government's decision and on efforts to have Indi transferred to Rome.
"We are waiting for the events" to unfold, the spokesperson told OSV News Nov. 7.
— Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News