Parents Fighting for Terminally Ill Baby
BALDWIN: An infant living on life support diagnosed with a terminal illness is getting support from two of the most powerful people in the world, President Trump and Pope Francis. Let me show you the face of Charlie Gard. His parents in London desperate to save him after doctors say it's time to pull little Charlie off of life support. Well, the parents are fighting. They want to bring their son here to the U.S. for an experimental treatment, but they are not allowed to do so. But this story is prompting this response from President Trump -- quote -- "If we can help little Charlie Gard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the pope, we would be delighted to do so" -- this after Pope Francis on Sunday called for the parents of the baby to be allowed to -- quote -- "accompany and treat their child until the end." CNN correspondent Diana Magnay is following this just heartbreaking story for us. Diana, tell me about the legal battle that got them into this place.</s>DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in the U.K., if there's a conflict between parents and doctors over how to care for a child, then it goes to court. And the courts have decided -- they have sided with the doctors, basically, and they said it's not in Charlie's best interests to send him to the U.S. and to experiment with this treatment, which is called nucleoside bypass therapy, because it won't necessarily make any difference. Even the U.S. specialist who is offering this treatment has said it's unlikely to reverse Charlie's brain damage, and that is the problem, whereas the parents think if there's a tiny chance, then we want to go for it. And this therapy has helped other children with a similar condition, but not quite the very, very rare strain that Charlie has. So it's gone all the way through the court system here, through the high court, the court of appeals, the supreme court, and the parents even took it to the European Court of Human Rights. But all the way along, the courts have sided with the doctors. And so the life support machine was meant to be turned off on Friday. The hospital here actually hasn't turned it off, but the parents just want this child to come home and be able to die at their home. And that's been denied them. Let's just take a listen to what they said last week.</s>CHRIS GARD, FATHER: He's a little trooper. He's a soldier. He will fight. He will fight to the very end. And he's still fighting. But we're not allowed to fight for him anymore. Our parental rights have been stripped away. We can't even take our own son home to die. We have been denied that. You don't think we have been through enough?</s>MAGNAY: Such a bitter end to this terrible, terrible case for the parents that has gone on for so much of little Charlie's 10-life -- Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: Oh. With the pope and with President Trump jumping in, do you know, Diana, has President Trump or the administration actually been in touch with these parents?</s>MAGNAY: Yes, we have heard from the White House that they have been in contact with the parents. The question is, how much good can that actually do, when this has gone up such a long legal chain in the U.K.? It's never been about the cost. They have crowd-funded a huge amount of money to pay for Charlie's treatment in the U.S. It wasn't about that.