Bioethics expert calls for change in the law after Indi Gregory death
After a Nottingham baby was taken off life-support by order of the Court of Appeal and died on 13 November, bioethicist Professor David Albert Jones condemned the legal system.
Severely ill eight-month-old Indi Gregory hit the national headlines when doctors at Nottingham’s Queens Medical Centre applied to the courts for permission to allow her to die. Indi’s parents appealed against the decision with the support of the Christian Legal Centre.
However, even though an Italian hospital offered to treat Indi and the Italian government granted her Italian citizenship to help save her, the Court still approved the hospital’s decision. Her parents were not even allowed to take Indi home to die – she was transferred to a hospice where her life-support was removed on 12 November and she passed away at 1.45am the next day.
Her parents were not even allowed to take Indi home to die
Professor Jones is a Professor in Bioethics at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, and director of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre in Oxford. He wrote in Premier Christianity magazine: “Allowing Indi Gregory to die, rather than be moved abroad for treatment, reveals serious flaws in the way British courts decide these cases. The law should be changed in order to better recognise the wishes of parents.”
Indi’s father, Dean Gregory, said:
“My wife Claire and I are angry, heartbroken, and ashamed. The NHS and the courts not only took away her chance to live a longer life, but they also took away Indi’s dignity to pass away in the family home where she belonged. They managed to take Indi’s body and dignity, but they will never be able to take her soul.”
According to LifeSiteNews, Dean had Indi baptised before her death, saying the court ordeal had been like “hell… and I want Indi to go to heaven… I am not religious… But when I was in court, I felt like I was being dragged to hell. I thought that if hell exists, then heaven must also exist. It was as if the devil was there. I thought that if the devil exists, then God must exist.”
Dean was impressed by the love and dedication of his lawyers from the Christian Legal Centre.
Indi had mitochondrial disease – the same condition as Charlie Gard, who died in 2017 after a similar court battle.
Conversion therapy bill absent in King’s Speech
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plan for the current session of Parliament doesn’t seem to include a conversion therapy bill, having been missed out of the King’s Speech in November’s state opening of Parliament.
The controversial proposal to ban conversion therapy threatened to restrict the freedom of Christian prayer and counselling, as well as preventing any professional from offering treatment for people with unwanted same-sex attraction.
Prevented offering treatment for people with unwanted same-sex attraction
The National Director of Christian Voice, Stephen Green, commented: “Your prayers, backed up by emails to MPs, have been answered. The King’s Speech made no reference to any ban on ‘conversion therapy’… However, there was nothing to stop the rest of the ‘woke’ agenda.”
Christian campaigner exonerated
The malicious case against Caroline Farrow, leader of traditional values campaign group CitizenGo, has been dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.
HEART featured Caroline’s arrest while cooking Sunday dinner for her family in October 2022. Police officers entered her home without a warrant and confiscated the electrical devices of her whole family, then arrested the Catholic mum and journalist.
The reason? She misgendered someone on the internet, who reported her to the police.
Six months later she was rearrested for not attending an interview, although she had warned the timing was not possible. Then the police applied for a draconian ‘stalking protection order’ against her which would have banned her from using the internet and any electronic devices. Fortunately that was refused.
On 11 November, Caroline told her supporters: “A few weeks ago, I received a notification that Surrey Police had referred my case to the Crown Prosecution Service who have determined that I will not face any criminal charges, because there is no evidence to support the allegations against me.” However, Caroline’s ordeal is not over. She says: “I am fighting my third civil lawsuit in four years, brought by this same individual over alleged ‘misuse of private information’ for defending myself against his repeated attempts to de-platform me in the media. The case will likely be heard sometime in 2024.
“I also intend to take legal action against Surrey Police… This situation happened because Surrey Police have been indoctrinated with LGBT ideology and were immediately biased against me from the start… their investigation consisted of believing the other party, on account of their transgender status as opposed to considering my side of the story.
“The police were prepared to walk all over my rights enshrined in articles eight, nine and ten of the Human Rights Act, because, they claimed I was at risk of committing ‘serious crime’.”
Cabinet reshuffle is a mixed bag for pro-life issues
PM Rishi Sunak’s change of Cabinet ministers in November has varied implications for issues such as abortion and euthanasia.
The dismissal of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary seemed a loss to the pro-life cause as she had previously told police that they should not be arresting people in buffer zones around abortion clinics who were only involved in “silent prayer”, because it “is not unlawful”.
The dismissal of Suella Braverman seemed a loss to the pro-life cause
back to the Cabinet in November (Credit: Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street)
In contrast, Right to Life UK reports that her replacement, James Cleverly, “has often abstained on votes related to life issues although he did vote against a bill to legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales in 2015. However, more recently, he has voted in favour of giving the Northern Ireland Secretary new powers to impose the commissioning of abortion services on the region.”
Meanwhile, new Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron has supported reducing the abortion limit from 24 to 20 weeks, and when he was PM he denounced sex-selective abortion as “appalling”, although he abstained when Parliament voted on an outright ban. He has also abstained on a vote to legalise assisted suicide.
Cameron denounced sex-selective abortion as “appalling”
New Health Secretary Victoria Atkins has supported abortion buffer zones and making ‘DIY’ home abortions permanent. The new Environment Secretary, Steve Barclay, supported the imposition of abortion services in Northern Ireland and three-parent embryos, but has voted against assisted suicide and for a ban on sex-selective abortion.
The Cabinet’s voting records on a number of life issues can be viewed at www.righttolife.org.uk.
Gay couples will have own church blessings by Easter
Same-sex couples will be able to request a dedicated ceremony of blessing in the Church of England via a trial process, following a vote on the issue by the General Synod on 15 November.
LGBT couples will be able to invite their friends and family to a special ceremony to celebrate their union.
This comes as a result of an amendment proposed by the Bishop of Oxford, Rt Rev Steven Croft, that same-sex stand-alone services be trialled on a temporary basis. In the House of Bishops, 23 voted for, ten against and four abstained. Among clergy, there were 100 votes for and 93 against, with one abstention. Within the laity, 104 voted in favour and 100 against, with no abstentions.
Speaking to Premier, the Bishop of London Rt Rev Sarah Mullally denied that the Church of England was offering same-sex marriage services. “This is about offering a stand-alone service to a couple in a stable, lifelong relationship with one another, who want to come in, give thanks for all those things that are good about their relationship and to ask for God’s blessing.”
Possible temporary ceremonies would be in place by Easter, although same-sex blessings services are not expected to be rolled out more widely across the whole Church until at least 2025 due to technical aspects of Canon law.
Following the debate, Rev John Dunnett, National Director of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), said the organisation was “grieved and saddened” by the decision and described it as “a watershed moment…it appears that the Church of England no longer sees Scripture as our supreme authority”.