Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, has said it is impossible for terminally ill Charlie Gard to be transferred to the Vatican's children's hospital for treatment.
Johnson told Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano legal reasons prevented the baby from being moved.
Meriella Enoc, the head of the Vatican's pediatric clinic at Bambino Gesù, said on 3 July that they would be willing to welcome Charlie Gard "for as long as he lives."
Mr Johnson told Alfano it is "right that decisions continued to be led by expert medical opinion, supported by the courts" in line with Charlie's "best interests," the BBC reports today.
The Vatican hospital stepped in, after Pope Francis called for the Charlie's to be allowed to do accompany and care for their child "until the end". A Vatican statement on 2 July also said that the pontiff is following Charlie’s case with “affection and emotion”.
During questions to the prime minister, today (5 July), Theresa May in response to a question about Charlie's case said she was "confident" that Great Ormond Street Hospital "have and always will consider any offers or new information that has come forward with consideration of the well-being of a desperately ill child."
Charlie, who is ten months old, has a rare genetic condition, mitochondrial depletion syndrome, that causes progressive muscle weakness and brain damage and doctors want to stop his life support. They say he can not see, hear, cry or swallow and is only breathing with the help of a ventilator.
Chris Gard and Connie Yates, from south west London, believe their son should undergo experimental medical therapy in the United States which they hope will prolong his life. Their son has been in intensive care at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital since last October. Specialists at the hospital say the experimental treatment would not help.
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