Charlie Gard: Parents end legal fight to take sick baby to US for experimental treatment

Connie Yates and Chris Gard said "it is no longer in Charlie's best interests" to receive experimental nucleoside therapy after it was shown he had suffered irreversible muscular damage.

Barrister Grant Artrong told a High Court judge the couple were "extremely distressed" by the results of the new medical tests on the 11-month-old, who has a rare genetic disease. He said a "window of opportunity has been lost" to help Charlie, as the damage meant "the treatment can no longer be a success". The decision concludes a bitter five-month legal fight from Yates and Gard, whose appeal to treat their son was previously rejected by the European Court of Human Rights. Doctors at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital maintained that it was kinder for the baby's life support to be switched off.

The case has caused an international furore, with both Donald Trump and Pope Francis offering to help baby Charlie, and judge Nicholas Francis was due to make a ruling in a fresh hearing of the case this week after examining clai of new evidence.

Charlie, who was born on 4 August 2016, inherited the faulty RRM2B gene, which affects the cells responsible for energy production and respiration, leaving him unable to move or breathe without a ventilator.

In a statement, Yates and Gard the last year had been "the best, the worst and ultimately life changing months of our lives" but "all our efforts have been for him".

"We are truly devastated to say that following the most recent I scan of Charlie's muscles," they said. "As Charlie's devoted and loving parents we have decided that it's no longer in Charlie's best interests to pursue treatment and we will let our son go and be with the angels."

Yates and Gard said they were aware the case had caused controversy, but now wish to treasure their remaining time with Charlie and asked for all protests to stop. Justice Francis said no one could begin to understand the parents' agony but they now had to "face reality" that it is in their son's best interests to die. "Many opinions have been expressed based on feelings rather than facts," he said in his judgement.

The judge paid tribute to Gard and Yates "for the love and care which they have at all times given to their wonderful boy Charlie". "There are few, if any, stronger bonds known to humankind than the love that a parent has for his or her child; to lose a child, particularly at such a tender age".