by Dominic Wilkinson and Julian Savulescu
The case of Charlie Gard has reached its sad conclusion. However, it continues to attract intense public attention. It raises a number of challenging and important ethical questions.
The role of Practical Ethics in cases like this is to help clarify the key concepts, identify central ethical questions, separate them from questions of scientific fact and subject arguments to critical scrutiny. We have disagreed about the right course of action for Charlie Gard, but agree on the role of ethical analysis and the importance of robust and informed debate. Ethics is not about personal opinion – but about argument, reasons, and rational reflection.
We have collected together below some of the materials on the Charlie Gard case that we and others have written as well as some relevant resources from our earlier work. We will update this page as more material becomes available. (*Updated 10/11/17)
Legal material on the case
- High Court judgment
- Full collection of legal materials relating to the case (courtesy of Thaddeus Pope’s excellent website)
- Great Ormond Street position statement 13/7/17
- Great Ormond Street position statement 24/7/17
- High court decision 24/7/17
Summary of Case
- Wikipedia (accessed 22 September 2017)
Blogs/comments
- WEBINAR: Charlie Gard case: questions and lessons (Dominic Wilkinson 10/11/17)
- Unpicking what we mean by best interests in the light of Charlie Gard (Julian Savulescu and Peter Singer BMJ.com 2/8/17)
- Hard lessons: learning from the Charlie Gard case (Dominic Wilkinson and Julian Savulescu 24/7/17)
- Press release: The worst outcome (Dominic Wilkinson 24/7/17)
- Press release: Vale Charlie (Julian Savulescu 24/7/17)
- Medical tourism for controversial treatment options. (Dominic Wilkinson 17/7/17)
- Burke, Briggs and Wills. Why we should not be afraid of the Charlie Gard judgment (Dominic Wilkinson 15/7/17)
- Burke and Wills, Bowen and Gard: The English Courts, Best Interests and Justice (Julian Savulescu 14/7/17)
- Charlie Gard: Why Trump and the Pope are right (Julian Savulescu and Peter Singer, ABC online, 14/7/17)
- Gard legal decision questionable on secular ethical grounds (Julian Savulescu, Peter Singer 6/7/17)
- The sad case of Charlie Gard and the rights and *wrongs* of experimental treatment (Dominic Wilkinson 6/7/17)
- The moral of the case of Charlie Gard: give dying patients experimental treatment…early (Julian Savulescu 5/7/17)
- Agreement and disagreement about experimental treatment: the Charlie Gard appeal (Dominic Wilkinson and Julian Savulescu 22/5/17)
- Debate response: Charlie Gard, interests and Justice, an alternative view (Dominic Wilkinson 26/4/17)
- Debate: The fiction of an interest in death? Justice for Charlie Gard (Julian Savulescu 26/4/17)
Papers on the Charlie Gard Case
- Wilkinson D, Savulescu J. After Charlie Gard: Ethicially Ensuring Access to Innovative Treatment. Lancet 2017 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32125-6
- Wilkinson D, Savulescu J. Hard lessons: learning from the Charlie Gard case. JME 2017
- Wilkinson D. Restoring balance to best interests disputes in children. [toll-free link] BMJ 2017; 358 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j3666
- Paris J, Ahluwahlia J, Cummings BM, Moreland MP, Wilkinson D. The Charlie Gard case: British and US approaches to court resolution of disputes about medical decisions (forthcoming in J Perinatology)
- Savulescu J. Is it in Charlie Gard’s best interest to die? Lancet 2017 389: 1868–9
- Wilkinson D. Beyond resources: denying parental requests for futile treatment Lancet 2017 389: 1866-7
Interviews
- Video interview (Dominic Wilkinson, Practical Ethics 14/7/17)
- Television interview (Julian Savulescu, ABC TV Australia 13/7/17)
- The Moral maze (Dominic Wilkinson, BBC radio, 12/7/17)
- Video interview (Julian Savulescu, Practical Ethics 10/7/17)
Relevant background material
- Wilkinson D. Futility. The International Encyclopaedia of ethics (forthcoming)
- Les Halpin, Julian Savulescu, Kevin Talbot, Martin Turner and Paul Talman. Access to medicines: empowering patients in the quest to improve treatment for lethal diseases. Journal of Medical Ethics. 2015
- Larcher V, Craig F, Bhogal K, Wilkinson D, Brierley J on behalf of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Making decisions to limit treatment in life-limiting and life-threatening conditions in children: a framework for practice. Arch Dis Child 2015 100(Suppl 2):s1–s26. doi:10.1136/archdischild-2014-306666
- Wilkinson D, Truog R, Savulescu J. In favour of medical dissensus. Why we should agree to disagree about end of life decisions. Bioethics 2016 Feb;30(2):109-18. doi: 10.1111/bioe.12162
- McDougall RJ, Notini L Overriding parents’ medical decisions for their children: a systematic review of normative literature Journal of Medical Ethics 2014;40:448-452.
- Wilkinson D. Death or Disability? The Carmentis machine and decisions for critically ill children. Oxford University Press 2013.
- Wilkinson DJ, Savulescu J. Knowing when to stop: futility in the intensive care unit. Curr Op Anesthesiol 2011 doi: 10.1097/ACO.0b013e328343c5af
- Thiagarajan, M., Savulescu, J., Skene, L. (2007). ‘Deciding about life support: A perspective on the ethical and legal framework in the United Kingdom and Australia’. Journal of Law and Medicine. 14: 583.
- Savulescu J. (2002). ‘How do we choose which life to save? Equality of Access or a Fair Go?’. Current Paediatrics. 12(6):487-492 (December).
- Savulescu, J. and Kahane, G. (2009). ‘Brain-Damage and the Moral Significance of Consciousness’. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. 34(1): pp 6-26. doi:10.1093/jmp/jhn038
Other ethics commentators
- How a fight for Charlie Gard became a fight against the state. Richard Hurley BMJ 2/8/17
- Right to Treatment, Futility, and the case of Charlie Gard. Robert Truog. JAMA 20/7/17
- The Charlie Gard Case, an ethicist in the courtroom. Daniel Sokol. BMJ blog 14/7/17
- What is best for baby Charlie Gard? Interview with John Lantos. BBC Newsday 11/7/17
- Radio interview Thaddeus Pope, Larry O’ Connor show 10/7/17
- Charlie Gard will likely die soon – let’s learn from the battle. Art Caplan. The Hill 7/7/1 7