British infant Indi Gregory given more time to live as judge allows family to appeal

“To date there has been no response or comment from the U.K. government on the case,” the group added. 

Justice Robert Peel had ruled on Wednesday, following a Nov. 7 “urgent online hearing,” that Gregory’s life support must be removed at 2 p.m. local time on Nov. 9, contrary to the wishes of her parents and over and against Italy’s attempts to treat the child.

Furthermore, the judge’s order stated that the life support must be removed at the hospital or at a hospice and not at the child’s home, citing a need for “clinical treatment of the highest quality, carried out in a safe and sustainable setting,” the BBC reported. 

Gregory’s parents have repeatedly appealed to take her to Rome for treatment after England’s high court ruled that it was in the child’s “best interests” to be taken off life support. In an effort to save Gregory’s life, the Italian government decided in an emergency meeting on Monday to grant her Italian citizenship and to cover the cost of her medical treatment at the Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital. 

The Italian consul in Manchester, Dr. Matteo Corradini, in his capacity as guardianship judge for Gregory, issued an emergency measure Nov. 8 recognizing the authority of the Italian courts in this case. The measure authorizes the adoption of the Bambino Gesù’s specialist treatment plan and assumes protection of Gregory, appointing the Italian hospital’s general manager, Dr. Antonio Perno, as Gregory’s guardian. The order authorizes her immediate transfer to Bambino Gesù, Christian Concern reported. 

Perno on Nov. 9 made an urgent application to the U.K. high court calling on Justice Peel to cede jurisdiction of the case to him under Article 9 of the 1996 Hague Convention, to which both the U.K. and Italy are parties.