AN OPINION
Of David Nieri

Source: Franco Cardini
In the end he didn't make it, poor Alfie. He passed away on Saturday night 28 April, a few days before his second birthday. Personally, I hoped for it until the end. I hoped the little one would continue to breathe, therefore to live, after the life support “plug” had been pulled a few days earlier. I hoped that at least the European Court would rule in favor of the transfer to "Bambino Gesù", after the Italian government had granted Alfie Italian citizenship to allow him to expatriate. Finally, I hoped for a miracle – we Catholics, you know, we believe - that it would annihilate judges and scientists from across the Channel who intend to rule on "life worth living" by establishing the boundary as a question of right, perhaps even going against the wishes of the parents - for a child under two years old, the only one possible. But in the land of Albion – that of the god of the English in whom you should never believe, and in fact I don't believe it – that's how it works: if there is no agreement between doctors and family, the law provides for the intervention of a judge. In the case in question, the doctors at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool had already declared, last December, that they have exhausted all options available to save the little one, therefore deciding to suspend the artificial ventilation that was keeping him alive. Decision to which obviously Tom and Kate Evans, the two very young parents, they were opposed, indicating among the treatment possibilities also the transfer to the "Bambino Gesù". None of this happened. As in the sad case of Charlie Gard, the end of a child's life has been decreed by law, and repeated appeals - including from the Holy See - to try to save the child were of no avail.
These are the facts. Of opinions, in truth, I've read a lot, maybe too many. And this is not the place - I wouldn't have the adequate means - to delve into the now dark forest of fundamental ethical issues - in this case, life –, about which mine, of opinion, it proceeds naturally in one direction. However, there are many gray areas, shades of gray that require some further investigation. Alfie's condition, for example. A very rare neurodegenerative disease, even defined as “mysterious”, whose name inspires fear just to pronounce it: “progressive myoclonic epilepsy”. There is no cure for this disease, generally with infantile onset, which causes progressively worsening seizures and myoclonus, that is, short and involuntary contractions of a muscle or group of muscles. English justice, so, he judged that the child's death was the only possible solution, “for his own good”. There are many objections to this decision, lots of obvious ones, with science making giant strides and therefore could allow the discovery of a cure, or at least a remedy, over the course of a few years. Why, so, do not keep the plug "plugged in" in the hope of a breakthrough in medical research? There are many neurodegenerative diseases currently without cure - for which there are only remedies to weaken and limit their effects: multiple sclerosis is an example of this, a pathology that is progressively disabling and unpredictable in its consequences. Applying the "English" judging criterion, to what extent and to what degree of severity, for a person suffering from sclerosis, we can talk about “life worth living”? Chi decide?
We are entering the forest, and it's time to get out of it right away. These are issues that touch everyone's conscience in a different way, how different is the method with which they face each other, even in the context of a shared opinion.
I would like to start from a fact. Charlie Gard's parents, affected by this new “tragedy”, they called for a new law on the matter. And this is where the most profound and delicate question arises, summed up in a speech to the Cortes by Juan Donoso Cortés way back 1849: “The cause of all your mistakes, gentlemen, lies in the fact that you ignore the direction of civilization and the world. You believe that civilization and the world progress, instead they are in regression. The world is moving very rapidly towards the most total and absolute despotism that has ever been seen.". A prophecy? Right, the twentieth century saw the alternation of Nazism and communism: but we are sure we have seen the worst?
The fact is that our West has suffered, for several centuries now, a progressive and unstoppable de-Christianization. And even jurisprudence - leaving aside the totalitarianisms of the last century with their horrors - is becoming accustomed to the continuous dominant secularization. We Christians, at this point, we represent a small minority, and it is increasingly difficult to actively participate in the questions that modernity presents to us. So much so that living according to the Enlightenment principle etsi Deus non daretur – as if God did not exist, axiom that the good Benedict XVI attempted to overturn – it seems to enchant many of us too: we often prefer to come to terms with modernity for personal gain, unless we wake up to proclaim ourselves as such - Catholics, I mean – when the media coverage recommends it or even imposes it. I thought this, during the uproar over Alfie's affair. Let's be clear, I have always believed that the battle was just and sacrosanct, with various “buts”. And I'll explain which ones.
During the hectic days that marked the events of the English child, I have read many opinions on various social networks, many inferences, many hypotheses – including “conspiracies” –, even sensationalism, that I didn't want to read. A media short circuit coming from the so-called "Catholic world". I didn't appreciate it, for example, the fierce criticism aimed at Pope Francis for "not having exposed himself enough", when a few days earlier he met Alfie's father in the Vatican, demonstrating absolute closeness and encouraging him to continue in the "battle". I don't see, sincerely, what a grave sin of lack of clarity or position-taking Bergoglio was guilty of, pontiff who is receiving plenty of criticism, also “from the inside”. And I didn't like the morbidity, I didn't like the torchlight processions which I too often consider simple performances - it's my shame: “public” demonstrations have always given me hives –, to show united a "community" that has been falling apart for decades. A community that often has no interest in the injustices that are perpetuated daily and prefers to take refuge in quiet living, bourgeois and burdened. In the end, even within this community, I don't like black and white fundamentalism, which often transcend the necessary and mutual respect.
I often wonder where the indignation and candlelight vigils for other causes of injustice and inhumanity are found. I asked myself the question, for example, a few days ago, il 24 April – among other things, Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day – when the horrible fifth anniversary of the collapse of Rana Plaza in Savar was sadly celebrated, in Bangladesh, tragedy "announced" due to the poor safety of the building in which over a thousand people lost their lives, including some children who were there with their working mothers. No hint, no tears. Those children also had the right to life: they were killed in the name of interest (Also) of our multinationals that exploit cheap labor to "dress" us in an inexpensive way, for example Benetton or Piazza Italia. Justice, in the case in question, it hasn't been done yet. And there are many, over there, to work without any guarantee of safety, accepting in spite of themselves to do so at risk, otherwise, to lose even the little they have.
I wonder where the indignation and torchlight processions were when 150 millions of children around the world – especially in Asia, in Sub-Saharan Africa, in America Latina, in the Caribbean – are exploited as child labor. Many people lose their lives at a young age due to the inhuman efforts to which they are forced. They too have the right to a "dignified" existence, to an education, to naturally enjoy the most beautiful age that life can give us.
I also wonder where they are when 155 millions of children suffer from chronic malnutrition (one minor in four under i 5 years in the world): more than half are located in Asia, particularly in South Asia (beyond 61 millions), and the 30 percent in Africa. In the third millennium, so, we are still dying of hunger.
The list would be very long. We often – almost always – worry about the unborn, and personally I have no objections, On the contrary. Perplexities arise when recently born children and their rights are ignored. For many of them there are no media megaphones, social, movements or words. And the din of silence and indifference resonates too loudly. (…)