Despite a court ruling allowing physicians to take 11-month-old Charlie Gard off of life support, his parents are fighting for their son's access to experimental treatment overseas for his rare condition.
Here are eight things to know about the Charlie Gard case.
1. Charlie was diagnosed with infantile onset encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, an autosomal recessive disorder that causes a drop in an individual's mitochondrial DNA in affected tissues, The Guardian reports. There is no cure for the condition.
2. As a result, Charlie has suffered "severe brain damage … cannot open his eyes or move his arms or legs … [and] is unable to breathe [without a ventilator]," the BBC reports. His heart, liver and kidneys have also been affected.
3. He is receiving treatment at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London. Physicians treating Charlie said they explored various treatment options, but claim none of the treatments would improve his quality of life. However, his parents disagreed, citing an experimental treatment that may improve Charlie's condition. The couple raised approximately €1.2 million ($1.37 million) to take Charlie overseas to receive experimental treatment. However, parents do not have the absolute right to make decisions for their children in the U.K., and "it is normal for the courts to intervene when parents and doctors disagree on the treatment of a child," ABC News reports.
4. The experimental treatment Charlie's parents want him to undergo, called nucleoside therapy, allegedly reduces some of the symptoms associated with the disorder, according to ABC News. While the treatment has proved successful for a small number of children, it has never been used on humans with Charlie's exact disorder.
5. Unable to agree on Charlie's treatment, the GOSHC physicians filed a case with the U.K. High Court of Justice in April, arguing Charlie should be taken off life support. The court sided with the GOSHC physicians, according to The Telegraph. Charlie's parents appealed the ruling in May, but the case was dismissed. The couple also sought to have the case heard by the U.K. Supreme Court in June, but the case was also dismissed. The couple made their last attempt June 20 to have the European Court of Human Rights analyze the case, but the court refused to intervene June 27, a BBC report states.
6. Numerous individuals have said they would like to help Charlie and his parents. A representative from the Vatican said July 2 its children's hospital in Italy would be willing to provide Charlie with care, The New York Times reports. President Donald Trump also tweeted his desire to help the child July 3. New York City-based NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center also offered to take Charlie in, according to STAT.
7. GOSHC physicians applied for a new hearing last week after reportedly receiving a letter from seven physicians from the Vatican's children's hospital "urging the hospital to reconsider the possibility of treatment," The Guardian reports. On July 7, the High Court issued a ruling allowing Charlie's parents 48 hours to provide "new and unpublished data" suggesting the experimental treatment would likely improve Charlie's condition, the BBC reports. However, a lawyer for the U.K. hospital said during the proceedings there was "nothing that could be called new evidence," according to The Guardian.
8. The case is scheduled to go to court again Thursday.