The hypothesis of a “conflict of jurisdiction” between Italy and the United Kingdom as an extreme weapon to try to bring the small girl to the Peninsula Then Gregory: 8-month-old English baby, suffering from a very serious mitochondrial pathology that British doctors and judges consider irreparable, condemned by the courts across the Channel to have the plug pulled starting tomorrow in spite of the wishes and hopes of the parents (Dean Gregory and Claire Staniforth).
AND despite the offer of the Bambino Gesù hospital in Rome to continue to assist her. The little girl’s fate is already written on paper, according to the verdict of Judge Robert Peel, of the High Court of London, who today not only set tomorrow as the deadline to interrupt Indi’s life support; but he also denied the family the right to take her home to Derbyshire, indicating a hospice as the most appropriate place for farewell, unless her parents prefer at this point to leave her in the Nottingham hospital where she is hospitalized.
The only glimmer of hope foreseen by the device is the indication that the machines that guarantee survival can be turned off “not before 2pm on Thursday”: to give time to present those further appeals that the Gregorys immediately announced. The granting of Italian citizenship, formalized on Monday as a matter of urgency for “humanitarian reasons” by Giorgia Meloni’s government, has therefore not been sufficient at the moment to modify the British ruling on the basis of which doctors had been given the green light to initiate a modification of the palliative therapy protocol to accompany the little girl towards the end: in the name of the supposed “best interest of Indi”, of the fears of prolonging hypothetical suffering, of an epilogue considered in any case marked.
An outcome on which however still hangs, as a sort of last chance, the intervention formalized yesterday at the request of the Gregorys by the Italian consul in Manchester, Matteo Corradini: who – assuming the role of guardianship judge on behalf of Italy – «issued an emergency provision, declaring the competence of the Italian judge and authorizing the adoption of the therapeutic plan proposed by the Bambino Gesù hospital and the transfer of the minor (now also an Italian citizen, ed.) in Rome”. At least according to what the family’s lawyers make known through Jacopo Coghe, spokesperson for Pro Vita & Famiglia, a non-profit organization aligned alongside the Gregorys in this battle together with an English Christian pro-life association, and the former Lega MP Simone Pillon, supported as a lawyer for the parents in Italy. The consul “has also appointed a special curator” and is committed to now attempting mediation in the hope of “fostering the desirable collaboration between the health authorities of the two countries and avoiding a conflict of jurisdiction”.
In short, the objective appears to be that of seeking some (problematic) leverage to try to unblock the situation in extremis – through diplomatic channels, and perhaps with some shared intervention by the two governments, taking into account the excellent relations between Giorgia Meloni and the British Tory Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak – a situation otherwise headed towards a fatal outcome. Judge Peel, endorsing the diagnosis of the Nottingham medical staff, has ruled out in recent days that a transfer to Rome could benefit the newborn and contribute to modifying “her prognosis in any way”.
Prognosis linked to a condition judged across the Channel to be not only incurable, but “terminal”: as in the precedent of little Alfie Evans, protagonist 5 years ago of an almost identical harrowing story which ended on the island with the execution of the measure interrupting the life support of the machines despite the rapid granting of Italian citizenship, guaranteed at the time by the government of Paolo Gentiloni, and the interventions of Pope Francis. Interventions that Indi’s parents are calling for again now, denouncing “the silence” of the Anglican Church and an attitude of the justice system of the Kingdom defined as rigid and “inhuman”.
Dad Dean, in a series of interviews, has returned in recent hours to openly contest the response of British white coats and gowns on the case, clinging to a medical report in her possession according to which Indi could actually live for another few months or even years, if assisted, albeit in a state of compromised consciousness. While she assured that “everything is ready” for her transfer to Italy within “a few hours”: provided that it is authorized before the end.