'ABSOLUTELY CHILLING': Judge closes 'the final chapter' on little Alfie Evans

Today, the family of Alfie Evans made one more plea for their son to be allowed to leave the U.K. and travel to Italy for treatment:

Still waiting for Alfie Evans hearing to start. Worth reiterating that the Vatican’s Bambino Gesù hospital, where Alfie’s parents want to take him, said the journey could do further damage. Said it could trigger “continuous seizures due to stimulations” of the flight.

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

Alfie Evans parents’ barrister asks judge to lift an order preventing the boy from being removed from Alder Hey: “It’s really an application for common humanity and common sense.”

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

Mr Justice Hayden repeatedly slaps down Paul Diamond, the barrister for Alfie’s parents, for highly-charged language the judge calls “ridiculous emotive nonsense”.

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

Judge intervened after Diamond said current legal situation is “contrary to civilised norms”. Judge says he doesn’t want court to be used “as a platform for platitudes and soundbites but for proper submissions” on behalf of Alfie’s family.

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

Barrister for Alder Hey says doctors told Alfie’s parents yesterday afternoon that he could survive minutes, hours or even days after ventilation withdrawn

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

Paul Diamond, for Alfie’s parents, told the judge the boy could live for as long as 10 days without life-support ventilation

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

New: Judge appears to have ruled out allowing Alfie to go to Rome or Munich for treatment – but asks Alder Hey to consider possibility of letting parents take him home.

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

Courtroom has risen while Alder Hey consider this point.

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

There has also been criticism from Alder Hey and the judge of some people around Alfie’s parents, said to be providing them false hope. “It’s profoundly depressing to say the least,” said the judge. He called one a “fanatical and deluded young man”.

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

An Alder Hey clinician, part of the team treating Alfie overnight, tells court the soonest they could move him home would be 3-5 days but that hostility to medics makes that “impossible” at present.

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

Alder Hey clinician tells court of “genuine fear” among fellow doctors in hostile atmosphere. Says it’s “heartbreaking we’re here again arguing when all we want to do is the best for Alfie’s family”.

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

Alder Hey clinician, still in her work scrubs to appear at this emergency hearing, says moving patients home “does not happen overnight” and only after extensive consideration and discussion.

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

In what appears to be the last-ditch of last-ditch appeals to the court, Alfie Evans family barrister asks judge to allow him to be treated overseas if other options fail in next 48 hours.

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

Italian ambassador’s chief of staff is in court. Alfie’s family barrister tells court the case has reached the “highest levels of the Italian government” and a military air ambulance is available to take Alfie to Rome.

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

But it’s official now: The judge has ruled that little Alfie Evans’ life is not worth trying to save.

New: Alfie Evans family has lost its legal challenge to fly him to Italy for treatment in what judge calls the “final chapter in the case of this extraordinary little boy”

— Josh Halliday (@JoshHalliday) April 24, 2018

The judge got one thing right: Evans is an extraordinary little boy. And the judge has effectively handed Evans a death sentence.

No words. https://t.co/N8lqGM8pp8

— Sean Agnew (@seanagnew) April 24, 2018

To be left speechless is understandable. What the state has done to Alfie Evans is beyond comprehension. But these tweeters have managed to muster some words to accurately describe what’s happened:

Unconscionable evil https://t.co/oyBDAi2a9i

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) April 24, 2018

Absolutely grotesque. https://t.co/Gxeg1TuXOG

— RBe (@RBPundit) April 24, 2018

https://twitter.com/j_arthur_bloom/status/988847793417703426

Transportation is waiting, but this is the final decision.

Utterly devastating. https://t.co/iLs4eVOHap

— Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) April 24, 2018

UK murdered another child.

This is repugnant … unacceptable.

Furious. https://t.co/yvtDDqEUnu

— The?FOO (@PolitiBunny) April 24, 2018

Health care may not be a right, but life is. And the state is taking that right away from Alfie Evans.

What does this mean? Can he go home? Are they just going to starve this baby to death in the “hospital”?! What a painful, inhumane way to go. It’s not “peaceful” at all. This is murder. UK is a 3rd world country. https://t.co/WprLeuoS07

— Liz Dickinson (@lizdickinson8) April 24, 2018

That a judge can decide what the “final chapter” of a little boy’s life will be instead of his parents is absolutely chilling. https://t.co/gBK4aDtdQS

— James Hasson (@JamesHasson20) April 24, 2018

As though the child is a book that the judge has decided to close, once and for all. https://t.co/s77KxeDKVm

— Adrian Vermeule (@Vermeullarmine) April 24, 2018

Please pray for Alfie Evans. Pray for his family. And pray for the souls of those who have sentenced him to die.