STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Some other news. A British court has made a final decision about the life of Charlie Gard. A judge says the critically ill infant must go off life support and be transferred to a hospice. NPR's Joanna Kakissis reports his parents had hoped to bring him home.
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: Charlie Gard suffers from a rare genetic disorder that has left him brain damaged and unable to breathe without a respirator. His parents spent months in court trying to discharge him from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. His mother, Connie Yates, told the BBC earlier this year that they wanted to take him to the United States for an experimental treatment.
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CONNIE YATES: If we don't get this opportunity, he's going to die. Even if it doesn't work, which I think it will, we know that we've done everything.
KAKISSIS: But Charlie's doctor said this experimental therapy, which has not undergone clinical trials, likely would not benefit him and might even harm him. British law allows doctors to override the wishes of parents in treatment decisions if it's in the child's best interest. His parents dropped their legal fight last week. His father, Chris Gard, was in tears as he spoke to reporters.
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CHRIS GARD: We are now going to spend our last precious moments with our son, Charlie, who unfortunately won't make his first birthday in just under two-weeks' time.
KAKISSIS: Charlie's parents and doctors are now trying to work out arrangement for care at a hospice. If they cannot agree, a judge ruled that the baby must be taken off life support immediately. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, London.
(SOUNDBITE OF LUDOVICO EINAUDI'S "FOUR DIMENSIONS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
