President Donald Trump stepped into the controversy surrounding the treatment of British infant Charlie Gard by suggesting in a tweet Monday morning he supports bringing the child to the U.S. to receive potentially life-saving treatment not available in his home country.
“If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so,” he tweeted.
Charlie suffers from a rare and typically fatal degenerative brain disease, Infantile Onset Mitochondrial DNA Depletion Syndrome. His parents have raised $1.6 million to bring him to the U.S., where he could receive an experimental treatment. The UK’s National Health System, however, has been determined to prevent them from doing so, even going so far as to order his life support cut off.
Last week, the European Court of Human Rights determined the NHS was correct to do so.
The Vatican originally sided with the government, but later Pope Francis issued his own countermanding statement:
“The Holy Father is following with affection and emotion the situation of Charlie Gard and expresses his closeness to the parents. He prays for them, wishing that their desire to accompany and care for their own child to the end will be respected.”
So far, the U.K. government has not changed its position on banning Charlie and his family from leaving the country. The entire situation, however, is a tragic reminder of what is at stake in the current debate in Congress over health care and health insurance.
Under a single-payer system as has been implemented in the U.K. and advocated in the U.S. by the likes of Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., cases like Charlie’s will sadly become much more common in our own country. {eoa}
