Great Britain
Seriously ill baby dies after life support is switched off
Her parents Claire Staniforth and Dean Gregory fought legally for Indi Gregory’s life until the end – in vain
© Family Handout / AFP
Indi Gregory is eight months old. The seriously ill baby has occupied courts in Great Britain for almost as long. Now the parents have lost the legal battle and their child.
After months of fruitless struggle by the parents in the British courts to continue life support for their terminally ill child The eight-month-old girl died. Indi Gregory died early this morning, parents Claire Staniforth and Dean Gregory said on Monday via the evangelical movement Christian Concern.
Indi Gregory was transferred from the hospital in the English city of Nottingham to a hospice at the weekend and all measures to keep her alive had been stopped. The baby suffered from a serious and incurable mitochondrial disease, a genetic defect in the mitochondria that prevents the body’s cells from producing energy. According to the doctors, further treatment would have been futile and painful.
Parents wanted to bring baby to Rome
Indi’s parents had fought the doctors’ decision for months. Initially they wanted to have the baby transferred to the Vatican Bambino Gesù Hospital in Rome for treatment and received last-minute support from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who granted the baby Italian citizenship. However, a British court finally rejected the application last Wednesday.
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On Friday, the second highest appeals court rejected the parents’ request to have Indi’s life support measures stopped at home. It thus confirmed the assessment of lower authorities that ceasing care outside of a medical facility was “too dangerous”.
Indi Gregory’s parents make serious allegations
In a statement, Indi’s father Gregory accused the British health service and the courts of denying her daughter not only the opportunity to live longer, but also to die “with dignity” at home with her family. “Have a good trip, little Indi,” Meloni wrote on Monday on the online service X (formerly Twitter): “We did what we could, everything that was possible. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough.”