The parents of a seriously ill toddler have lost their fight to keep him on life support after the High Court in London ruled that continuing treatment would be "unkind, unfair and inhumane".
Twenty-one-month-old Alfie Evans has been in a coma for a year at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool after being struck down by a mystery degenerative brain condition.
His parents argued he should be flown to a specialist hospital in Italy where his condition could be diagnosed and treated.
But days before Christmas, on December 19, Alder Hey Hospital refused to move the toddler, maintaining that continuing life support was not in Alfie's best interests.
Earlier this month the hospital told the Liverpool Civil and Family Court that Alfie was in a "semi-vegetative state" and yesterday a London High Court judge ruled that further treatment would harm Alfie's "future dignity".
The judge gave the hospital permission to withdraw Alfie's ventilation on Friday (local time).
Outside the courthouse Alfie's father, Tom Evans, who was visibly upset by the decision, likened the ruling to his son receiving the death penalty.
"I'm not giving up, my son isn't giving up. No-one, I repeat no-one is taking my boy away from me and they're not violating his rights or mine," Mr Evans said.
"We got the false impression that we were at least going to get the dignity to go on with him but now they want him dead by Friday."
It is unclear at this stage whether the family will appeal the decision.
The family had raised 65,000 pounds ($115,850) via crowdfunding to pay for treatment at the Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome.
"We have found another European hospital willing to help Alfie move forward, get a tracheostomy and PEG tube and get off heavy sedation, and to try to diagnose and treat him," Alfie's parents said via their crowdfunding page.
"We've been told several times by outside doctors that Alfie can even eventually be able to go home … yet Alder Hey keeps moving the goalposts."
A change.org petition to have Alfie released from Alder Hey hospital has received more than 110,000 signatures.
Last year the Bambino Gesu hospital made headlines when it offered to take in Charlie Gard, the terminally ill baby who was also at the centre of a high-profile legal fight over treatment.
The European Court of Human Rights rejected a plea from Charlie's parents to receive further treatment, concluding further treatment would "continue to cause Charlie significant harm".
