Alfie Evans supporters urge MPs to introduce ‘Alfie’s Law’ that gives parents right to choose hospital care

A CAMPAIGN is tonight calling for MPs to back "Alfie's Law" to give parents more power over hospital care.

Parliament is being urged to consider letting families have more freedom to choose the care for their child amid the tragic Alfie Evans case.

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Little Alfie, who suffers a rare brain condition, has been off life support for three days at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool.

His parents Tom Evans and Kate James have pleaded to allow them airlift him to Italy after Pope Francis and the Italian government reached out to help.

But courts backed British doctors in their assessment that the 23-month-old cannot be saved.

His tragic case follows that of Charlie Gard, the London tot who died at 11-months-old in July last year.

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Courts backed Great Ormond Street docs in blocking parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates from taking him to the US for experimental treatment for his mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.

Launched by Westminster think tank Parliament Street, the Alfie's Law campaign says MPs should give parents more rights over their ill children's hospital treatment.

Former Ukip MEP Steven Woolfe, leading the campaign, said outside Parliament today that "a dangerous trend" has emerged of parents being deprived of the right to make healthcare decisions.

He said: “Parent’s rights should neither be ignored nor dismissed as irrelevant by hospitals and courts, who believe they know best and have the power, money and resources to overwhelm families who simply want to save their child."

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He added: "We demand a change in the law to restore the rights of parents in such decisions.

"All parents should be allowed an independent advocate to defend their case with the right legal and medical expertise and financial equality of arms.

“Now is the time to act. We cannot have another baby, another family, have to go through the struggle and torment the Evans family have. It’s time for Alfie’s Law.”

Elizabeth Anderson, Head of Campaigns at Parliament Street said: “Parents are being side-lined in the care of their children, in what are highly complicated moral decisions.

"We strongly believe it is time for a change in the law to re-empower parents to have a say in the treatment of their children.

"We know that MPs have the power to change this, to help children and their parents in the future, and call on them to address this.”

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But the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said the Alfie Evans case shows doctors have to put the priority of the child above all else.

A statement said: "As healthcare professionals involved in the care of babies, children and young people, the priority has to be the child.

"Every action and decisions is taken in the best interests of the child, and decisions on care, including the withdrawal of treatment, are always made with the involvement of parents."