The battle for the life of Indi Gregory continues, the English girl at the center of a dispute between Italy and the United Kingdom.
Yesterday, Judge Robert Peel, of the High Court in London, confirmed - against the family's wishes - the green light for British doctors to interrupt life support for the 8-month-old baby girl, suffering from a serious mitochondrial condition deemed "terminal". in the Kingdom . The doctors were ready to pull the plug at 2pm Italian time, but the stop was extended first by two hours, then until tomorrow, when at 1pm Italian time the appeal on the possibility of transferring the jurisdiction of the case to Italy will be discussed.
There are " hours of frantic work against time to obtain a regulation of jurisdiction between Italy and the United Kingdom , as required by the 1996 Hague Convention - the Gregory family's lawyers say -. The minor's best interest is to live and not to die, which is why we still hope for an agreement."
The news comes from Jacopo Coghe, spokesperson for Pro Vita & Famiglia onlus, and from lawyer Simone Pillon, who are following the developments of the Italian side of the matter in contact with the English lawyers and the family. "We are also at work - the lawyers announce - to appeal against yesterday's sentence, to obtain a response from the judge on the possibility of examining the case and extending the deadline".
The Italian guardian has made an urgent application to the High Court of the United Kingdom asking Judge Robert Peel to cede jurisdiction over the case to him, pursuant to Article 9 paragraph 2 of the 1996 Hague Convention . Such a development had not occurred never before occurred in an end-of-life case involving a child in the UK. The Convention concerns "jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition, enforcement and cooperation in matters of parental responsibility and child protection measures".
For father Dean Gregory "it is a shame that the hospital (in Nottingham) and the courts of the United Kingdom simply insist on ignoring the offer of the Italian government", for the transfer of the little girl to the Bambino Gesù in Rome, after the granting of the Italian citizenship to the child.
In yesterday's ruling, Judge Peel dismissed the provision of Giorgia Meloni's government as "irrelevant" compared to his legal verdict. Which pushed Dean Gregory to renew his appeal directly to Rishi Sunak's conservative executive for political intervention in the legal dispute. "I appeal to the British government - he declared - to allow Indi to go to Italy before it is too late".
«We think it is in Indi's best interest to come to Italy to receive treatments that could help her breathe, by opening a valve through the implantation of a stent, so that we can then focus on her mitochondrial disease which can be treated with these therapies – he said again in a video broadcast by La7 -. We know that Indi is a fighter, she wants to live, and doesn't deserve to die. Thank you ."
(Unioneonline/D)