英国绝症患儿查理•加德引全球热议
近日,英国绝症患儿查理•加德引起了包括美国总统特朗普与教皇方济各在内的多方关注。11个月大的查理•加德患有无法治愈的基因疾病,父母希望带他前往美国接受“实验性”治疗。但医院专家认为这只会令他更痛苦,并决定拔掉查理的呼吸机。 Eleven-month-old Charlie Gard has irreversible brain damage and cannot see, hear, move or even cry, doctors say. Yet this terminally ill British baby is at the middle of a global ethical argument over whether he should live or die, an argument that has attracted the attention of Pope Francis and US President Donald Trump. 医院为何主张结束他的生命? Charlie has an extremely rare degenerative condition called mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome. His doctors in Britain want to take him off life support, arguing that he has no hope of surviving without assistance and that he should be allowed to die in dignity. But Charlie's parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, want the hospital to release their baby into their custody so they can take him to the United States for an experimental treatment. 查理是世界上仅有的16个患有线粒体缺失综合征的患者之一,这种病症会引起渐进性的肌肉无力和大脑损伤。现在查理已经受到了不可逆转的脑损伤,不能自主呼吸,失去了视力和听力,无法移动、哭泣或者吞咽。目前医学上没有任何办法进行有效治疗。8个月来,查理一直在医院的重症监护室里接受治疗,在呼吸机的帮助下维持生命。
患儿生命应由谁做主? 查理一家的遭遇重新唤起了关于患儿生命应由谁做主的讨论。 The case has resurfaced a decades-old debate over euthanasia and the use of life support, issues that have been fought in most corners of the world and that have often seen medical and religious arguments collide. There is some legal uncertainty, too: Under British law, parental responsibility includes the right to give consent for medical treatment, according to the British Medical Association. However, parental rights are not absolute, and in cases in which doctors and parents disagree, the courts may exercise objective judgment in a child's best interest. 根据英国法律,如果父母和医生对孩子的治疗意见有分歧,法庭可以出面干涉,以保护患儿的权益。例如,有时父母的宗教信仰不允许孩子接受输血。 Gard and Yates lost their appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in France, which ruled June 27 that the hospital could discontinue Charlie's life support. They had already lost an appeal to the UK Supreme Court. Now, the date Charlie's life support will be switched off appears to be up in the air, as the hospital is allowing the parents to spend more time with their child. 查理的父母指责医院不让他们将身患绝症的宝宝带回家,让他在家里度过最后的时光。 “我们想让小查理回家。”加德的父亲说:“我们想在家给他洗澡,让他舒服地躺在沙发上,想把他放在他从没睡过的小床上,但是他们却不同意我们最后的请求。” 特朗普和教皇表达声援 英国最高法院的判决在民间也曾掀起轩然大波,有超过11万人签名请愿,请求首相能够出面帮助解决这个问题。 On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Theresa May expressed her sympathy for the baby's parents, saying she understood why they would want to explore all options for their child. But she also defended the hospital, saying that it would consider any offers on new information that would benefit the baby. "I also know that no doctor wants to be placed in the terrible position where they have to make such heartbreaking decisions," she said. The case of Charlie Gard has also captured the attention of US President Trump, who on Monday offered US support for the baby. "If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the UK and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so," he wrote on Twitter. 查理的妈妈伊茨给特朗普的推特回复说,“儿子都没放弃,我们怎么能放弃!” 就在特朗普提出帮助的几个小时之前,教皇方济各说,查理的父母应该被允许陪伴和治疗孩子直到最后。教皇方济各发出推特消息说:“捍卫人的生命权是上帝赋予所有人的爱的责任。” Yates said in a statement that she was taking support from Trump and the Pope seriously. "The support from the Pope and the President has given us hope. They are traditional men who believe in the family. They believe in our case and understand why we believe it is right to continue fighting so hard to save Charlie," she said.
Trump did not elaborate on how the US might help the child, but a US doctor has agreed to carry out an experimental treatment called nucleoside bypass therapy. 查理的父母目前已经筹集到130万英镑的善款,可以用于查理前往美国的治疗。 As the parents explained in their fundraising efforts, the therapy is an oral medication that provides Charlie with naturally occurring compounds that his body is not able to produce. His parents hope that the medicine might repair his flawed mitochondrial genes. Mitochondrial DNA depletion has a poor prognosis and leads to weakened muscles and organ dysfunction, among other symptoms. According to bioethicist Julian Savulescu of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, the experimental therapy offers a very small chance of some improvement. It has never been used to treat this form of mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, though it has proved beneficial to patients with a different form of the disease. 2014年,也曾有类似案件受到世界关注。当时,5岁的英国男孩Ashya King身患癌症,父母不顾医生的建议,将他从医院带离,寻求英国没有的一种疗法——质子射线疗法。这对夫妇曾因此在西班牙被捕,但最终获准带儿子去捷克治疗。小孩现在已经痊愈回到学校,英国也正在建设3个质子射线疗法中心。 最新进展 A US hospital has offered to ship an experimental drug to the UK to help treat critically ill Charlie Gard. New York Presbyterian hospital and Columbia University Irving medical center also offered to admit the 11-month-old if legal hurdles could be cleared. |